The Matrix Formulation of Type IIB Five-Branes

Abstract

We present a matrix model which interpolates between type IIA and type IIB NS five-branes. The matrix description involves a three-dimensional bulk quantum field theory interacting with impurities localized in one spatial direction. We obtain a dual matrix formulation for the exotic six-dimensional theory on coincident type IIB NS five-branes by studying the T-dual description in terms of Kaluza-Klein monopoles in type IIA string theory. After decoupling the bulk physics, the matrix description reduces to the conformal field theory of the Coulomb branch for the type IIA matrix string propagating on certain singular spaces. In many ways, this dual realization of superconformal theories is the two-dimensional analogue of three-dimensional mirror symmetry.