Supersymmetric Solutions with Fluxes from Algebraic Killing Spinors

We give a general framework for constructing supersymmetric solutions in the presence of non-trivial fluxes of tensor gauge fields. This technique involves making a general Ansatz for the metric and then defining the Killing spinors in terms of very simple projectors on the spinor fields. These projectors and, through them, the spinors, are determined algebraically in terms of the metric Ansatz. The Killing spinor equations then fix the tensor gauge fields algebraically, and, with the Bianchi identities, provide a system of equations for all the metric functions. We illustrate this by constructing an infinite family of massive flows that preserve eight supersymmetries in M-theory. This family constitutes all the radially symmetric Coulomb branch flows of the softly broken, large N scalar-fermion theory on M2-branes. We reduce the problem to the solution of a single, non-linear partial differential equation in two variables. This equation governs the flow of the fermion mass, and the function that solves it then generates the entire M-theory solution algebraically in terms of the function and its first derivatives. While the governing equation is non-linear, it has a very simple perturbation theory from which one can see how the Coulomb branch is encoded.

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Published 1 January 2003