Non-commutative vs. commutative descriptions of D-brane BIons

The U(1) gauge theory on a D3-brane with non-commutative worldvolume is shown to admit BIon-like solutions which saturate a BPS bound on the energy. The mapping of these solutions to ordinary fields is found exactly, namely non-perturbatively in the non-commutativity parameters. The result is precisely an ordinary supersymmetric BIon in the presence of a background B-field. We argue that the result provides evidence in favour of the exact equivalence of the non-commutative and the ordinary descriptions of D-branes. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.