arXiv subjects

Hermann Nicolai

Publications and source records attributed to Hermann Nicolai.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Conformal Anomaly and Off-Shell Extensions of Gravity

The gauge dependence of the conformal anomaly for spin 3/2 and spin 2 fields in non-conformal supergravities has been a long standing puzzle. In this Letter we argue that the `correct' gauge choice is the one that follows from requiring all terms that would imply a violation of the Wess-Zumino consistency condition to be absent in the counterterm, because otherwise the usual link between the anomaly and the one-loop divergence becomes invalid. Remarkably, the `good' choice of gauge is the one that confirms our previous result that a complete cancellation of conformal anomalies in D=4 can only be achieved for N-extended (Poincaré) supergravities with $N\geq 5$.

hep-th↗

arXiv2016

Conformal anomalies and the Einstein Field Equations

We compute corrections to the Einstein field equations which are induced by the anomalous effective actions associated to the type A conformal anomaly, both for the (non-local) Riegert action, as well as for the local action with dilaton. In all cases considered we find that these corrections can be very large.

hep-th↗

arXiv2016

Conformal Anomalies and Gravitational Waves

We argue that the presence of conformal anomalies in gravitational theories can lead to observable modifications to Einstein's equations via the induced anomalous effective actions, whose non-localities can overwhelm the smallness of the Planck scale. The fact that no such effects have been seen in recent cosmological or gravitational wave observations therefore imposes strong restrictions on the field content of possible extensions of Einstein's theory: all viable theories should have vanishing conformal anomalies. We then show that a complete cancellation of conformal anomalies in D=4 for both the $C^2$ invariant and the Euler (Gauss-Bonnet) invariant can only be achieved for N-extended supergravities with $N \geq 5$, as well as for M theory compactified to four dimensions.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Higher spin representations of K(E10)

We review the recently constructed non-trivial fermionic representations of the infinite-dimensional subalgebra K(E10) of the hyperbolic Kac--Moody algebra E10. These representations are all unfaithful (and more specifically, of finite dimension). In addition we present their decompositions under the various finite-dimensional subgroups associated with some maximal supergravities in dimensions D<=11, and the projectors for `spin-7/2' which have not been given before. Those representations that have not been derived from supergravity still have to find a role and a proper physical interpretation in the conjectured correspondence between E10 and M-theory. Nevertheless, they provide novel mathematical structures that could shed some light on fundamental questions in supergravity and on the possible role of K(E10) as an `R-symmetry' of M-theory, and perhaps also on the algebra E10 itself.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

Consistent 4-form fluxes for maximal supergravity

We derive new ansaetze for the 4-form field strength of D=11 supergravity corresponding to uplifts of four-dimensional maximal gauged supergravity. In particular, the ansaetze directly yield the components of the 4-form field strength in terms of the scalars and vectors of the four-dimensional maximal gauged supergravity---in this way they provide an explicit uplift of all four-dimensional consistent truncations of D=11 supergravity. The new ansaetze provide a substantially simpler method for uplifting d=4 flows compared to the previously available method using the 3-form and 6-form potential ansaetze. The ansatz for the Freund-Rubin term allows us to conjecture a `master formula' for the latter in terms of the scalar potential of d=4 gauged supergravity and its first derivative. We also resolve a long-standing puzzle concerning the antisymmetry of the flux obtained from uplift ansaetze.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

Conformal Standard Model with an extended scalar sector

We present an extended version of the Conformal Standard Model (characterized by the absence of any new intermediate scales between the electroweak scale and the Planck scale) with an enlarged scalar sector coupling to right-chiral neutrinos. The scalar potential and the Yukawa couplings involving only right-chiral neutrinos are invariant under a new global symmetry SU(3)$_N$ that complements the standard U(1)$_{B-L}$ symmetry, and is broken explicitly only by the Yukawa interaction, of order $10^{-6}$, coupling right-chiral neutrinos and the electroweak lepton doublets. We point out four main advantages of this enlargement, namely: (1) the economy of the (non-supersymmetric) Standard Model, and thus its observational success, is preserved; (2) thanks to the enlarged scalar sector the RG improved one-loop effective potential is everywhere positive with a stable global minimum, thereby avoiding the notorious instability of the Standard Model vacuum; (3) the pseudo-Goldstone bosons resulting from spontaneous breaking of the SU(3)$_N$ symmetry are natural Dark Matter candidates with calculable small masses and couplings; and (4) the Majorana Yukawa coupling matrix acquires a form naturally adapted to leptogenesis. The model is made perturbatively consistent up to the Planck scale by imposing the vanishing of quadratic divergences at the Planck scale (`softly broken conformal symmetry'). Observable consequences of the model occur mainly via the mixing of the new scalars and the standard model Higgs boson.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Standard model fermions and K(E10)

In recent work arXiv:1412.1715 it was shown how to modify Gell-Mann's proposal for identifying the 48 quarks and leptons of the Standard Model with the 48 spin-1/2 fermions of maximal SO(8) gauged supergravity that remain after the removal of eight Goldstinos, by deforming the residual U(1) symmetry at the SU(3)xU(1) stationary point of N=8 supergravity to also achieve agreement of the electric charge assignments. In this Letter we show that the required deformation, while not in SU(8), does belong to K(E10), the `maximal compact' subgroup of E10 which is a possible candidate symmetry underlying M theory. The incorporation of infinite-dimensional Kac-Moody symmetries of hyperbolic type, apparently unavoidable for the present scheme to work, opens up completely new perspectives on embedding Standard Model physics into a Planck scale theory of quantum gravity.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

Canonical structure of the E10 model and supersymmetry

A coset model based on the hyperbolic Kac-Moody algebra E10 has been conjectured to underly eleven-dimensional supergravity and M theory. In this note we study the canonical structure of the bosonic model for finite- and infinite-dimensional groups. In the case of finite-dimensional groups like GL(n) we exhibit a convenient set of variables with Borel-type canonical brackets. The generalisation to the Kac-Moody case requires a proper treatment of the imaginary roots that remains elusive. As a second result, we show that the supersymmetry constraint of D=11 supergravity can be rewritten in a suggestive way using E10 algebra data. Combined with the canonical structure, this rewriting explains the previously observed association of the canonical constraints with null roots of E10. We also exhibit a basic incompatibility between local supersymmetry and the K(E10) `R symmetry', that can be traced back to the presence of imaginary roots and to the unfaithfulness of the spinor representations occurring in the present formulation of the E10 worldline model, and that may require a novel type of bosonisation/fermionisation for its resolution. This appears to be a key challenge for future progress with E10.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

Standard Model Fermions and N=8 supergravity

In a scheme originally proposed by M. Gell-Mann, and subsequently shown to be realized at the SU(3)xU(1) stationary point of maximal gauged SO(8) supergravity by N. Warner and one of the present authors, the 48 spin 1/2 fermions of the theory remaining after the removal of eight Goldstinos can be identified with the 48 quarks and leptons (including right-chiral neutrinos) of the Standard Model, provided one identifies the residual SU(3) with the diagonal subgroup of the color group SU(3)_c and a family symmetry SU(3)_f. However, there remained a systematic mismatch in the electric charges by a spurion charge of $\pm$1/6. We here identify the `missing' U(1) that rectifies this mismatch, and that takes a surprisingly simple, though unexpected form.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

An SO(3)$\times$SO(3) invariant solution of $D=11$ supergravity

We construct a new SO(3)$\times$SO(3) invariant non-supersymmetric solution of the bosonic field equations of $D=11$ supergravity from the corresponding stationary point of maximal gauged $N=8$ supergravity by making use of the non-linear uplift formulae for the metric and the 3-form potential. The latter are crucial as this solution appears to be inaccessible to traditional techniques of solving Einstein's field equations, and is arguably the most complicated closed form solution of this type ever found. The solution is also a promising candidate for a stable non-supersymmetric solution of M-theory uplifted from gauged supergravity. The technique that we present here may be applied more generally to uplift other solutions of gauged supergravity.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

Supersymmetric E$_{7(7)}$ Exceptional Field Theory

We give the supersymmetric extension of exceptional field theory for E$_{7(7)}$, which is based on a $(4+56)$-dimensional generalized spacetime subject to a covariant constraint. The fermions are tensors under the local Lorentz group ${\rm SO}(1,3)\times {\rm SU}(8)$ and transform as scalar densities under the E$_{7(7)}$ (internal) generalized diffeomorphisms. The supersymmetry transformations are manifestly covariant under these symmetries and close, in particular, into the generalized diffeomorphisms of the 56-dimensional space. We give the fermionic field equations and prove supersymmetric invariance. We establish the consistency of these results with the recently constructed generalized geometric formulation of $D=11$ supergravity.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

Softly broken conformal symmetry and the stability of the electroweak scale

We point out a novel possible mechanism by which the electroweak hierarchy problem can be avoided in the (effective) quantum field theory. Assuming the existence of a UV complete underlying fundamental theory and treating the cutoff scale $Λ$ of the effective field theory as a real physical scale we argue that the hierarchy problem would be solved if the coefficient in front of quadratic divergences vanished for some choice of $Λ$, and if the effective theory mass parameters fixed at $Λ$ by the fundamental theory were hierarchically smaller than $Λ$ itself. While this mechanism most probably cannot work in the Standard Model if the scale $Λ$ is to be close to the Planck scale, we show that it can work in a minimal extension (Conformal Standard Model) proposed recently for a different implementation of soft conformal symmetry breaking.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2014

Einstein-Cartan Calculus for Exceptional Geometry

In this paper we establish and clarify the link between the recently found E7 generalised geometric structures, which are based on the SU(8) invariant reformulation of D=11 supergravity proposed long ago, and newer results obtained in the framework of recent approaches to generalised geometry, where E7 duality is built in and manifest from the outset. In making this connection, the so-called generalised vielbein postulate plays a key role. We explicitly show how this postulate can be used to define an E7 valued affine connection and an associated covariant derivative, which yields a generalised curvature tensor for the E7 based exceptional geometry. The analysis of the generalised vielbein postulate also provides a natural explanation for the emergence of the embedding tensor from higher dimensions.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

The embedding tensor of Scherk-Schwarz flux compactifications from eleven dimensions

We study the Scherk-Schwarz reduction of D=11 supergravity with background fluxes in the context of a recently developed framework pertaining to D=11 supergravity. We derive the embedding tensor of the associated four-dimensional maximal gauged theories directly from eleven dimensions by exploiting the generalised vielbein postulates, and by analysing the couplings of the full set of 56 electric and magnetic gauge fields to the generalised vielbeine. The treatment presented here will apply more generally to other reductions of $D=11$ supergravity to maximal gauged theories in four dimensions.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Non-linear Kaluza-Klein theory for dual fields

We present non-linear uplift ansaetze for all the bosonic degrees of freedom and dual fields in the 7-sphere reduction of D=11 supergravity to maximal SO(8) gauged supergravity and test them for the SO$(7)^{\pm}$ invariant solutions. In particular, we complete the known ansaetze for the internal components of the metric and 4-form flux by constructing a non-linear ansatz for the internal components of the dual 7-form flux. Furthermore, we provide ansaetze for the complete set of 56 vector fields, which are given by more general structures than those available from standard Kaluza-Klein theory. The novel features encountered here have no conventional geometric interpretation and provide a new perspective on Kaluza-Klein theory. We study the recently found set of generalised vielbein postulates and, for the 7-sphere compactification, we show that they reduce to the E7(7) Cartan equation of maximal SO(8) gauged supergravity in four dimensions. The significance of this framework for a higher-dimensional understanding of the embedding tensor and other gauged maximal supergravities is briefly discussed.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Generalised geometry from the ground up

Extending previous work on generalised geometry, we explicitly construct an E7-valued vielbein in eleven dimensions that encompasses the scalar bosonic degrees of freedom of D=11 supergravity, by identifying new "generalised vielbeine" in eleven dimensions associated with the dual 6-form potential and the dual graviton. By maintaining full on-shell equivalence with the original theory at every step, our construction altogether avoids the constraints usually encountered in other approaches to generalised geometry and, as a side product, also furnishes the non-linear ansatz for the dual (magnetic) 7-form flux for any non-trivial compactification of D=11 supergravity, complementing the known non-linear ansaetze for the metric and the 4-form flux. A preliminary analysis of the generalised vielbein postulate for the new vielbein components reveals tantalising hints of new structures beyond D=11 supergravity and ordinary space-time covariance, and also points to the possible D=11 origins of the embedding tensor. We discuss the extension of these results to E8.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

On higher spin realizations of K(E10)

Starting from the known unfaithful spinorial representations of the compact subalgebra K(E10) of the split real hyperbolic Kac-Moody algebra E10 we construct new fermionic `higher spin' representations of this algebra (for `spin-5/2' and `spin-7/2', respectively) in a second quantized framework. Our construction is based on a simplified realization of K(E10) on the Dirac and the vector spinor representations in terms of the associated roots, and on a re-definition of the vector spinor first introduced by Damour and Hillmann. The latter replaces manifestly SO(10) covariant expressions by new expressions that are covariant w.r.t. SO(1,9), the invariance group of the DeWitt metric restricted to the space of scale factors. We present explicit expressions for all K(E10) elements that are associated to real roots of the hyperbolic algebra (of which there are infinitely many), as well as novel explicit realizations of the generators associated to imaginary roots and their multiplicities. We also discuss the resulting realizations of the Weyl group.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Deformations of gauged SO(8) supergravity and supergravity in eleven dimensions

Motivated by the fact that there exists a continuous one-parameter family of gauged SO(8) supergravities, possible eleven-dimensional origins of this phenomenon are explored. Taking the original proof of the consistency of the truncation of 11D supergravity to SO(8) gauged supergravity as a starting point, a number of critical issues is discussed, such as the preferred electric-magnetic duality frame in four dimensions and the existence of dual magnetic gauge fields and related quantities in eleven dimensions. Some of those issues are resolved but others seem to point to obstructions in embedding the continuous degeneracy in 11D supergravity. While the final outcome of these efforts remains as yet inconclusive, several new results are obtained. Among those is the full non-linear ansatz for the seven-dimensional flux expressed in terms of the scalars and pseudoscalars of 4D supergravity, valid for both the S^7 and the T^7 truncations without resorting to tensor-scalar duality.

hep-th↗