arXiv subjects

Hisham Sati

Publications and source records attributed to Hisham Sati.

138 records · Page 8Linked to original sources

arXiv2007

The Loop Group of E8 and Targets for Spacetime

The dimensional reduction of the E8 gauge theory in eleven dimensions leads to a loop bundle in ten dimensional type IA string theory. We show that the restriction to the Neveu-Schwarz sector leads naturally to a sigma model with target space E8 with the ten-dimensional spacetime as the source. The corresponding bundle has a structure group the group of based loops, whose classifying space we study. We explore some consequences of this proposal such as possible Lagrangians and existence of flat connections.

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arXiv2006

E8 Gauge Theory and Gerbes in String Theory

The reduction of the E8 gauge theory to ten dimensions leads to a loop group, which in relation to twisted K-theory has a Dixmier-Douady class identified with the Neveu-Schwarz H-field. We give an interpretation of the degree two part of the eta-form by comparing the adiabatic limit of the eta invariant with the one loop term in type IIA. More generally, starting with a G-bundle, the comparison for manifolds with String structure identifies G with E8 and the representation as the adjoint, due to an interesting appearance of the dual Coxeter number. This makes possible a description in terms of a generalized WZW model at the critical level. We also discuss the relation to the index gerbe, the possibility of obtaining such bundles from loop space, and the symmetry breaking to finite-dimensional bundles. We discuss the implications of this and we give several proposals.

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arXiv2006

Can D-Branes Wrap Nonrepresentable Cycles?

Sometimes a homology cycle of a nonsingular compactification manifold cannot be represented by a nonsingular submanifold. We want to know whether such nonrepresentable cycles can be wrapped by D-branes. A brane wrapping a representable cycle carries a K-theory charge if and only if its Freed-Witten anomaly vanishes. However some K-theory charges are only carried by branes that wrap nonrepresentable cycles. We provide two examples of Freed-Witten anomaly-free D6-branes wrapping nonrepresentable cycles in the presence of a trivial NS 3-form flux. The first occurs in type IIA string theory compactified on the Sp(2) group manifold and the second in IIA on a product of lens spaces. We find that the first D6-brane carries a K-theory charge while the second does not.

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arXiv2006

Duality symmetry and the form fields of M-theory

In previous work we derived the topological terms in the M-theory action in terms of certain characters that we defined. In this paper, we propose the extention of these characters to include the dual fields. The unified treatment of the M-theory four-form field strength and its dual leads to several observations. In particular we elaborate on the possibility of a twisted cohomology theory with a twist given by degrees greater than three.

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arXiv2005

The Elliptic curves in gauge theory, string theory, and cohomology

Elliptic curves play a natural and important role in elliptic cohomology. In earlier work with I. Kriz, thes elliptic curves were interpreted physically in two ways: as corresponding to the intersection of M2 and M5 in the context of (the reduction of M-theory to) type IIA and as the elliptic fiber leading to F-theory for type IIB. In this paper we elaborate on the physical setting for various generalized cohomology theories, including elliptic cohomology, and we note that the above two seemingly unrelated descriptions can be unified using Sen's picture of the orientifold limit of F-theory compactification on K3, which unifies the Seiberg-Witten curve with the F-theory curve, and through which we naturally explain the constancy of the modulus that emerges from elliptic cohomology. This also clarifies the orbifolding performed in the previous work and justifies the appearance of the w_4 condition in the elliptic refinement of the mod 2 part of the partition function. We comment on the cohomology theory needed for the case when the modular parameter varies in the base of the elliptic fibration.

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arXiv2005

Flux Quantization and the M-Theoretic Characters

In a previous work, hep-th/0501245, we introduced characters and classes built out of the M-theory four-form and the Pontrjagin classes, which we used to express the Chern-Simons and the one-loop terms in a way that makes the topological structures behind them more transparent. In this paper we further investigate such classes and the corresponding candidate generalized cohomology theories. In particular, we study the flux quantization conditions that arise in this context.

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arXiv2005

Type II string theory and modularity

This paper, in a sense, completes a series of three papers. In the previous two hep-th/0404013, hep-th/0410293, we have explored the possibility of refining the K-theory partition function in type II string theories using elliptic cohomology. In the present paper, we make that more concrete by defining a fully quantized free field theory based on elliptic cohomology of 10-dimensional spacetime. Moreover, we describe a concrete scenario how this is related to compactification of F-theory on an elliptic curve leading to IIA and IIB theories. We propose an interpretation of the elliptic curve in the context of elliptic cohomology. We discuss the possibility of orbifolding of the elliptic curves and derive certain properties of F-theory. We propose a link of this to type IIB modularity, the structure of the topological Lagrangian of M-theory, and Witten's index of loop space Dirac operators.

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arXiv2005

Some Relations between Twisted K-theory and E8 Gauge Theory

Recently, Diaconescu, Moore and Witten provided a nontrivial link between K-theory and M-theory, by deriving the partition function of the Ramond-Ramond fields of Type IIA string theory from an E8 gauge theory in eleven dimensions. We give some relations between twisted K-theory and M-theory by adapting the method of Diaconescu-Moore-Witten and Moore-Saulina. In particular, we construct the twisted K-theory torus which defines the partition function, and also discuss the problem from the E8 loop group picture, in which the Dixmier-Douady class is the Neveu-Schwarz field. In the process of doing this, we encounter some mathematics that is new to the physics literature. In particular, the eta differential form, which is the generalization of the eta invariant, arises naturally in this context. We conclude with several open problems in mathematics and string theory.

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arXiv2005

M-theory and Characteristic Classes

In this note we show that the Chern-Simons and the one-loop terms in the M-theory action can be written in terms of new characters involving the M-theory four-form and the string classes. This sheds a new light on the topological structure behind M-theory and suggests the construction of a theory of `higher' characteristic classes.

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arXiv2005

Type IIB String Theory, S-Duality, and Generalized Cohomology

In the presence of background Neveu-Schwarz flux, the description of the Ramond-Ramond fields of type IIB string theory using twisted K-theory is not compatible with S-duality. We argue that other possible variants of twisted K-theory would still not resolve this issue. We propose instead a possible path to a solution using elliptic cohomology. We also discuss T-duality relation of this to a previous proposal for IIA theory, and higher-dimensional limits. In the process, we obtain some other results which may be interesting on their own. In particular, we prove a conjecture of Witten that the 11-dimensional spin cobordism group vanishes on K(Z,6), which eliminates a potential new theta-angle in type IIB string theory.

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arXiv2004

M Theory, Type IIA Superstrings, and Elliptic Cohomology

The topological part of the M-theory partition function was shown by Witten to be encoded in the index of an E8 bundle in eleven dimensions. This partition function is, however, not automatically anomaly-free. We observe here that the vanishing W_7=0 of the Diaconescu-Moore-Witten anomaly in IIA and compactified M-theory partition function is equivalent to orientability of spacetime with respect to (complex-oriented) elliptic cohomology. Motivated by this, we define an elliptic cohomology correction to the IIA partition function, and propose its relationship to interaction between 2-branes and 5-branes in the M-theory limit.

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arXiv2002

SUSY vs E8 Gauge Theory in 11 Dimensions

Diaconescu, Moore and Witten have shown that the topological part of the M-theory partition function is an invariant of an E8 gauge bundle over the 11-dimensional bulk. This presents a puzzle as an 11d gauge theory cannot exhibit linearly realized supersymmetry. One possibility is that the gauge theory is nonsupersymmetric and flows to 11d SUGRA only in the infrared, with SUSY arising as a low energy accidental degeneracy. Although no such gauge theory has been constructed, any such construction must satisfy a number of constraints in order to correctly reproduce the known 10-dimensional physics on each boundary component. We analyze these constraints and in particular use them to attempt an approximate construction of the 11d gravitino as a condensate of the gauge theory fields.

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