Supersymmetric Gödel Universes in string theory Original Research Article

Supersymmetric backgrounds in string and M-theory of the Gödel Universe type are studied. We find several new Gödel Universes that preserve up to 20 supersymmetries. In particular, we obtain an interesting Gödel Universe in M-theory with 18 supersymmetries which does not seem to be dual to a pp-wave. We show that not only T-duality but also the type-IIA/M-theory S-duality can give supersymmetric Gödel Universes from pp-waves. We find solutions that can interpolate between Gödel Universes and pp-waves. We also compute the string spectrum on two type IIA Gödel Universes. Furthermore, we obtain the spectrum of D-branes on a Gödel Universe and find the supergravity solution for a D4-brane on a Gödel Universe.