BPS Branes in Supergravity

Abstract

This review considers the properties of classical solutions to supergravity theories with partially unbroken supersymmetry. These solutions saturate Bogomol'ny-Prasad-Sommerfield bounds on their energy densities and are the carriers of the $p$-form charges that appear in the supersymmetry algebra. The simplest such solutions have the character of $(p+1)$-dimensional Poincar\'e-invariant hyperplanes in spacetime, i.e. $p$-branes. Topics covered include the relations between mass densities, charge densities and the preservation of unbroken supersymmetry; interpolating-soliton structure; diagonal and vertical Kaluza-Klein reduction families; multiple-charge solutions and the four D=11 elements; duality-symmetry multiplets; charge quantisation; low-velocity scattering and the geometry of worldvolume supersymmetric $\sigma$-models; and the target-space geometry of BPS instanton solutions obtained by the dimensional reduction of static $p$-branes.