Type-I strings on magnetised orbifolds and brane transmutation

In the presence of internal magnetic fields, a D9 brane can acquire a D5 (or anti-D5) R-R charge, and can therefore contribute to the corresponding tadpole. In the resulting vacua, supersymmetry is generically broken and tachyonic instabilities are present. However, suitable choices for the magnetic fields, corresponding to self-dual configurations in the internal space, can yield new chiral supersymmetric vacua with gauge groups of reduced rank, where the magnetic energy saturates, partly or fully, the negative tension of the O5(+), planes. These models contain Green-Schwarz couplings to untwisted R-R forms not present in conventional orientifolds. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.