For the asymptotically flat extremal D solution with , is harmonic away from the source and . The electric potential can be chosen as ; magnetic descriptions use the dual flux, and a D3-brane has self-dual five-form flux. An equally oriented probe has DBI density and Wess-Zumino density , whose sum is position independent. This proves the corresponding parallel D-brane no-force identity in the classical background. The supergravity approximation requires controlled curvature and coupling; it does not resolve every brane core.
A supersymmetric type-II D-brane carries a Ramond–Ramond potential charge and saturates the corresponding generalized BPS bound in supersymmetry: its brane tension equals the charge-dependent central/tensorial-charge bound in the relevant normalization. It is therefore a BPS state, preserving sixteen of the thirty-two spacetime supercharges. Identical parallel branes with the same orientation impose the same supersymmetry projector. This statement does not apply to arbitrary unstable non-BPS branes or to the bosonic branes of the preceding parts.
One direct demonstration of the parallel D-brane no-force identity is the annulus vacuum amplitude. For separation , its oscillator-dependent part is proportional to
Here
The first two terms describe the projected Neveu–Schwarz sector, and the last is the oppositely signed Ramond sector contribution. The Jacobi abstruse identity gives for every . Therefore
In the closed-string channel, attractive graviton and dilaton exchange cancel repulsive Ramond–Ramond potential exchange. The classical probe calculation in the D-brane supergravity solution gives the same cancellation. The common supersymmetry allows separation to remain a flat modulus; relative angles, reversed RR charge or supersymmetry-breaking backgrounds can remove this protection. For a brane–antibrane pair the RR interaction reverses and does not cancel the NS-NS attraction. The charge and half-supersymmetry interpretation is established in Dirichlet-Branes and Ramond-Ramond Charges.
A D-brane is a localized RR-charged source whose long-distance fields solve supergravity. The extremal charged -brane solutions carry the same RR charges, brane tension and preserved supersymmetry as the open-string construction. For the standard asymptotically flat cases , the D-brane supergravity solution in the string frame is
The function is a positive harmonic function away from the source, in transverse dimensions. In an electric gauge, , with its orientation chosen to match the source. Magnetic branes use the dual flux; for the D3-brane, the five-form includes both electric and magnetic pieces and is self-dual. Killing spinors obey one brane projector, leaving sixteen supersymmetries. Aligned multicenter harmonic functions describe several branes with no static binding force.
To check this identification directly, insert an equally oriented static probe into the solution. Put , so the asymptotic tension is . The induced-volume factor is ; combined with , its DBI action density is . Its Wess-Zumino brane coupling contributes . Hence the total static Lagrangian density is the constant , independently of position. This gives the parallel D-brane no-force identity in the spacetime description.
The supergravity background is the back-reacted, coarse long-distance description, while the boundary-condition description exposes the light open-string degrees of freedom. Controlled use of supergravity requires curvature small in string units and suitable local coupling. Singular cores and the special codimension-two or domain-wall cases are not automatically resolved by the elementary harmonic ansatz.