Weyl-Conformally Invariant p-Brane Theories

Abstract

We discuss in some detail the properties of a novel class of Weyl-conformally invariant p-brane theories which describe intrinsically light-like branes for any odd world-volume dimension and whose dynamics significantly differs from that of the ordinary (conformally non-invariant) Nambu-Goto p-branes. We present explicit solutions of the WILL-brane (Weyl-Invariant Light-Like brane) equations of motion in various gravitational backgrounds of physical relevance exhibiting the following new phenomena: (i) In spherically symmetric static backgrounds the WILL-brane automatically positions itself on (materializes) the event horizon of the corresponding black hole solutions, thus providing an explicit dynamical realization of the membrane paradigm in black hole physics; (ii) In product spaces (of interest in Kaluza-Klein context) the WILL-brane wrappes non-trivially around the compact (internal) dimensions and moves as a whole with the speed of light in the non-compact (space-time) dimensions.