A mass hierarchy from recoiling D branes

Abstract

Using conformal field theory methods we construct a metric that describes the distortion of space-time surrounding a D(irichlet)-brane (solitonic) defect after being struck by another D-brane. By viewing our four-dimensional universe as such a struck brane, embedded in a five-dimensional space-time, we argue on the appearance of a band of massive Kaluza-Klein excitations for the bulk graviton which is localized in a region of the fifth dimension determined by the inverse size of the band. The band incorporates the massless mode (ordinary graviton) and its thickness is determined essentially by the width of the Gaussian distribution describing the (target-space) quantum fluctuations of the intersecting-brane configuration.