Branes and Calibrated Geometries

Abstract

The fivebrane worldvolume theory in eleven dimensions is known to contain BPS threebrane solitons which can also be interpreted as a fivebrane whose worldvolume is wrapped around a Riemann surface. By considering configurations of intersecting fivebranes and hence intersecting threebrane solitons, we determine the Bogomol'nyi equations for more general BPS configurations. We obtain differential equations, generalising Cauchy-Riemann equations, which imply that the worldvolume of the fivebrane is wrapped around a calibrated geometry.