Interplay of intersecting branes and consistent embeddings

A bstract We explore consistent truncations from 10d/11d supergravity to supergravity theories on brane worldvolumes. Supersymmetric black-brane solutions to these lower-dimensional theories can be uplifted to 10d/11d supergravity and interpreted as intersecting-brane solutions with a particular smearing pattern. We survey this novel family of intersecting-brane solutions which also includes cases that are not related to previously known consistent truncations. Turning the argument on its head, we argue that the knowledge of such solutions allows us to generate appropriate embedding ansätze for consistent truncations. We demonstrate this by deriving new consistent embeddings of pure 5d 𝒩 = 4 supergravity on D4-branes in type IIA theory and of pure 6d 𝒩 = (1) supergravity on NS5-branes in type IIB theory.