Non-abelian Born-Infeld versus string theory

Motivated by the results of Hashimoto and Taylor, we perform a detailed stu dy of the mass spectrum of the non-abelian Born-Infeld theory, defined by t he symmetrized trace prescription, on tori with constant magnetic fields tu rned on. Subsequently, we compare this for several cases to the mass spectr um of intersecting D-branes, Exact agreement is found in only two cases: BP S configurations on the four-torus and coinciding tilted branes. Finally we investigate the fluctuation dynamics of an arbitrarily wrapped Dp-brane wi th Aux. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.