Magnons and spikes for $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 2 linear quivers and their non-Abelian T-duals

Abstract

Abstract We compute the spectra associated with various semiclassical string states that propagate over $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 2 Gaiotto-Maldacena backgrounds. As an interesting special case, for the Abelian T- dual solution, we discover giant magnon and single spike configurations while imposing appropriate boundary conditions. However, for Sfetsos-Thompson backgrounds, one has to adopt a different string embedding which reveals “modified” dispersion relations both for magnons and spikes. These results boil down into the standard dispersion relations in the limit when the rank of the associated SU(Nc) color gauge group becomes large enough. We further generalize our analysis in the presence of flavor D6 branes. Our analysis reveals a new set of dispersion relations, which shows that both magnons and spikes are ceased to exist in the presence of flavor excitations.