Supersymmetric baryonic branes

We derive an energy bound for a 'baryonic' D5-brane probe in the AdS(5) x S -5 background near the horizon of N D3-branes. Configurations saturating th e bound are shown to be 1/4 supersymmetric S-5-wrapped D5-branes, with a to tal Born-Infeld charge N. Previous results are recovered as a special case. We derive a similar energy bound for a 'baryonic' M5-brane probe in the ba ckground of N M5-branes. Configurations saturating the bound are again 1/4 supersymmetric and, in the AdS(7) x S-4 near-horizon limit, provide a world volume realization of the 'baryon string' vertex of the (2,0)-supersymmetri c six-dimensional conformal field theory on coincident M5-branes. For the f ull M5-background we find a worldvolume realization of the Hanany-Witten ef fect in M-theory.