Rotating Supertubes

Abstract

We study the rotating tubular D2-brane as a time dependent supersymmetric solution of type-IIA string theory. We show that the Poynting angular momentum of the supertube can be replaced by the mechanical angular momentum without disturbing the 8 supersymmetries. Unlike the non-rotating supertube, whose cross section can take an arbitrary shape, the rotating supertube admits only the circular cross section. When there is no electric field on the world volume, the supersymmetry dictates the angular velocity of the tubular D2-brane to be inversely proportional to the magnetic field. This rotating supertube can be considered as the `blown-up' configuration of an array of spinning D0-particles and is T-dual to the spiraling D-helix whose pitch moves at the speed of light.