Dirichlet Branes and Ramond-Ramond Charges

Abstract

We show that D-branes, extended objects defined by mixed Dirichlet-Neumann boundary conditions, break half the supersymmetries of the type II superstring and carry a complete set of electric and magnetic Ramond-Ramond charges. The product of the electric and magnetic charges is a single Dirac unit, and the quantum of charge is that required by string duality. This is strong evidence that D-branes are intrinsic to type II string theory and are the Ramond-Ramond sources needed for string duality. Also, we find in the IIa string a 9-form potential, which gives an effective cosmological constant.