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arXiv · 2411.00955

Twisted Orientifold planes and S-duality without supersymmetry

Guillaume Bossard·Gabriele Casagrande·Emilian Dudas
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Abstract

We construct a novel orientifold of type IIB string theory that breaks all supersymmetries. It is a closed string theory without open sector and it can be understood as a Scherk-Schwarz deformation in which supersymmetry is restored at infinite radius. We conjecture that it is realised in F-theory as a compactification on a freely acting orbifold that acts as the reflection on the elliptic fibre. The SL(2,Z) selfduality is manifest in the F-theory formulation. We construct explicitly the D-branes in this model and find that stable D-branes match the geometric prediction in M-theory. This theory has the salient feature that the O-planes couple only to the massive twisted states of the theory. We call them twisted O-planes. We describe supersymmetric examples of such twisted O-planes and argue that they are similar in nature to combinations of O+ and O- planes with vanishing total charge.

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Guillaume Bossard, Gabriele Casagrande, Emilian Dudas. 2024-11-01. Twisted Orientifold planes and S-duality without supersymmetry. https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.00955

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