Codimension-2 Branes in Supergravity

Abstract

<p>The goal of this thesis is to study the back-reaction of codimension-2 branes in chiral gauged supergravity for solutions which are consistent with axial symmetry in the bulk directions and maximal symmetry in the spatial directions of the brane (FRW-like branes). The mathematics involved in this is somewhat cumbersome so as a first step, which can later be used as a check, we study solutions which are consistent with axial symmetry in the bulk and maximally symmetric in all brane directions. In order to analyze the brane back-reaction we compute a set of equations relating the bulk fields at the brane position to the brane properties, known as junction conditions. These junction conditions combined with the low-energy on-brane effective action (which is also derived) provide the complete description of the brane back-reaction. This formalism is then applied to two examples and generalized for the case of FRW-like branes.</p>