Covariant description of D-branes in IIA plane-wave background

Abstract

We work out boundary conditions for the covariant open string in the type IIA plane wave background, which corresponds to the D-branes in the type IIA theory. We use the kappa symmetric string action and see what kind of boundary conditions should be imposed to retain kappa symmetry. We find half BPS as well as quarter BPS branes and the analysis agrees with the previous work in the light cone gauge if the result is available. Finally we find that D0-brane is non-supersymmetric. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.