We define a ghost D-brane in superstring theories as an object that cancels the effects of an ordinary D-brane. The supergroups U(N |M) and OSp(N |M) arise as gauge symmetries in the supersymmetric world-volume theory of D-branes and ghost D-branes. A system with a pair of D-brane and ghost D-brane located at the same location is physically equivalent to the closed string vacuum. When they are ...
