Bubbling orientifolds

Abstract

We investigate a class of ½-BPS bubbling geometries associated to orientifolds of type-IIB string theory and thereby to excited states of the SO(N)/Sp(N) N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. The geometries are in correspondence with free fermions moving in a harmonic oscillator potential on the half-line. Branes wrapped on torsion cycles of these geometries are identified in the fermi fluid description. Besides being of intrinsic interest, these solutions may also occur as local geometries in flux compactifications where orientifold planes are present to ensure global charge cancellation. We comment on the extension of this procedure to M-theory orientifolds.