  We discuss the process of transmutation of branes into Abelian magnetic flux
on the worldvolume of $D9$ branes. This phenomenon is T-dual to the
recombination of branes in the intersecting-brane description. In the low
energy limit this can be described by a Higgs mechanism involving bifundamental
scalars. The Abelian magnetic background arises as a consequence of the
compactness of the internal space. Explicit (six-dimensional) examples based on
the supersymmetric and the Brane Supersymmetry Breaking (BSB)
\mathbb{T}^4/\mathbb{Z}_2 orientifold are analyzed.
