String Motion in Fivebrane Geometry

Abstract

The classical motion of a test string in the transverse space of two types of heterotic fivebrane sources is fully analyzed, for arbitrary instanton scale size. The singular case is treated as a special case and does not arise in the continuous limit of zero instanton size. We find that the orbits are either circular or open, which is a solitonic analogy with the motion of an electron around a magnetic monopole, although the system we consider is quantitatively different. We emphasize that at long distance this geometry does not satisfy the inverse square law, but satisfies the inverse cubic law. If the fivebrane exists in nature and this structure survives after any proper compactification, this last result can be used to test classical ``stringy'' effects.