Duality and asymptotic geometries

We consider a series of duality transformations that leads to a constant shift in the harmonic functions appearing in the description of a configuration of branes. This way, for several intersections of branes, we can relate the original brane configuration which is asymptotically flat to a geometry of the type ad S-k X E-l X S-m. The implications of our results for supersymmetry enhancement, M(atrix) theory at finite N, and for supergravity theories in diverse dimensions are discussed. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.