arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to U. Gran.
We show that all IIB supergravity backgrounds which admit more than 28 Killing spinors are maximally supersymmetric. In particular, we find that for all N>28 backgrounds the supercovariant curvature vanishes, and that the quotients of maximally supersymmetric backgrounds either preserve all 32 or N<29 supersymmetries.
We find the geometry of all supersymmetric type I backgrounds by solving the gravitino and dilatino Killing spinor equations, using the spinorial geometry technique, in all cases. The solutions of the gravitino Killing spinor equation are characterized by their isotropy group in Spin(9,1), while the solutions of the dilatino Killing spinor equation are characterized by their isotropy group in the subgroup Sigma(P) of Spin(9,1) which preserves the space of parallel spinors P. Given a solution of the gravitino Killing spinor equation with L parallel spinors, L = 1,2,3,4,5,6,8, the dilatino Killing spinor equation allows for solutions with N supersymmetries for any 0 < N =< L. Moreover for L = 16, we confirm that N = 8,10,12,14,16. We find that in most cases the Bianchi identities and the field equations of type I backgrounds imply a further reduction of the holonomy of the supercovariant connection. In addition, we show that in some cases if the holonomy group of the supercovariant connection is precisely the isotropy group of the parallel spinors, then all parallel spinors are Killing and so there are no backgrounds with N < L supersymmetries.
We review some aspects of the spinorial geometry approach to the classification of supersymmetric solutions of supergravity theories. In particular, we explain how spinorial geometry can be used to express the Killing spinor equations in terms of a linear system for the fluxes and the geometry of spacetime. The solutions of this linear system express some of the fluxes in terms of the spacetime geometry and determine the conditions on the spacetime geometry imposed by supersymmetry. We also present some of the recent applications like the classification of maximally supersymmetric G-backgrounds in IIB, this includes the most general pp-wave solution preserving 1/2 supersymmetry, and the classification of N=31 backgrounds in ten and eleven dimensions.
We review the recent progress made towards the classification of supersymmetric solutions in ten and eleven dimensions with emphasis on those of IIB supergravity. In particular, the spinorial geometry method is outlined and adapted to nearly maximally supersymmetric backgrounds. We then demonstrate its effectiveness by classifying the maximally supersymmetric IIB G-backgrounds and by showing that N=31 IIB solutions do not exist.
We show that eleven-dimensional supergravity backgrounds with thirty one supersymmetries, N=31, admit an additional Killing spinor and so they are locally isometric to maximally supersymmetric ones. This rules out the existence of simply connected eleven-dimensional supergravity preons. We also show that N=15 solutions of type I supergravities are locally isometric to Minkowski spacetime.
We adapt the spinorial geometry method to investigate supergravity backgrounds with near maximal number of supersymmetries. We then apply the formalism to show that the IIB supergravity backgrounds with 31 supersymmetries preserve an additional supersymmetry and so they are maximally supersymmetric. This rules out the existence of IIB supergravity preons.
We classify the geometry of all supersymmetric IIB backgrounds which admit the maximal number of $G$-invariant Killing spinors. For compact stability subgroups $G=G_2, SU(3)$ and SU(2), the spacetime is locally isometric to a product $X_n\times Y_{10-n}$ with $n=3,4,6$, where $X_n$ is a maximally supersymmetric solution of a $n$-dimensional supergravity theory and $Y_{10-n}$ is a Riemannian manifold with holonomy $G$. For non-compact stability subgroups, $G=K\ltimes\bR^8$, $K=Spin(7)$, SU(4), $Sp(2)$, $SU(2)\times SU(2)$ and $\{1\}$, the spacetime is a pp-wave propagating in an eight-dimensional manifold with holonomy $K$. We find new supersymmetric pp-wave solutions of IIB supergravity.
We describe the geometry of all type II common sector backgrounds with two supersymmetries. In particular, we determine the spacetime geometry of those supersymmetric backgrounds for which each copy of the Killing spinor equations admits a Killing spinor. The stability subgroups of both Killing spinors are $Spin(7)\ltimes \bR^8$, $SU(4)\ltimes \bR^8$ and $G_2$ for IIB backgrounds, and $Spin(7)$, SU(4) and $G_2\ltimes \bR^8$ for IIA backgrounds. We show that the spacetime of backgrounds with spinors that have stability subgroup $K\ltimes \bR^8$ is a pp-wave propagating in an eight-dimensional manifold with a $K$-structure. The spacetime of backgrounds with $K$-invariant Killing spinors is a fibre bundle with fibre spanned by the orbits of two commuting null Killing vector fields and base space an eight-dimensional manifold which admits a $K$-structure. Type II T-duality interchanges the backgrounds with $K$- and $K\ltimes\bR^8$-invariant Killing spinors. We show that the geometries of the base space of the fibre bundle and the corresponding space in which the pp-wave propagates are the same. The conformal symmetry of the world-sheet action of type II strings propagating in these N=2 backgrounds can always be fixed in the light-cone gauge.
We determine the geometry of supersymmetric heterotic string backgrounds for which all parallel spinors with respect to the connection $\hat\nabla$ with torsion $H$, the NS$\otimes$NS three-form field strength, are Killing. We find that there are two classes of such backgrounds, the null and the timelike. The Killing spinors of the null backgrounds have stability subgroups $K\ltimes\bR^8$ in $Spin(9,1)$, for $K=Spin(7)$, SU(4), $Sp(2)$, $SU(2)\times SU(2)$ and $\{1\}$, and the Killing spinors of the timelike backgrounds have stability subgroups $G_2$, SU(3), SU(2) and $\{1\}$. The former admit a single null $\hat\nabla$-parallel vector field while the latter admit a timelike and two, three, five and nine spacelike $\hat\nabla$-parallel vector fields, respectively. The spacetime of the null backgrounds is a Lorentzian two-parameter family of Riemannian manifolds $B$ with skew-symmetric torsion. If the rotation of the null vector field vanishes, the holonomy of the connection with torsion of $B$ is contained in $K$. The spacetime of time-like backgrounds is a principal bundle $P$ with fibre a Lorentzian Lie group and base space a suitable Riemannian manifold with skew-symmetric torsion. The principal bundle is equipped with a connection $λ$ which determines the non-horizontal part of the spacetime metric and of $H$. The curvature of $λ$ takes values in an appropriate Lie algebra constructed from that of $K$. In addition $dH$ has only horizontal components and contains the Pontrjagin class of $P$. We have computed in all cases the Killing spinor bilinears, expressed the fluxes in terms of the geometry and determine the field equations that are implied by the Killing spinor equations.
We reduce the classification of all supersymmetric backgrounds of IIB supergravity to the evaluation of the Killing spinor equations and their integrability conditions, which contain the field equations, on five types of spinors. This extends the work of [hep-th/0503046] to IIB supergravity. We give the expressions of the Killing spinor equations on all five types of spinors. In this way, the Killing spinor equations become a linear system for the fluxes, geometry and spacetime derivatives of the functions that determine the Killing spinors. This system can be solved to express the fluxes in terms of the geometry and determine the conditions on the geometry of any supersymmetric background. Similarly, the integrability conditions of the Killing spinor equations are turned into a linear system. This can be used to determine the field equations that are implied by the Killing spinor equations for any supersymmetric background. We show that these linear systems simplify for generic backgrounds with maximal and half-maximal number of $H$-invariant Killing spinors, $H\subset Spin(9,1)$. In the maximal case, the Killing spinor equations factorize, whereas in the half-maximal case they do not. As an example, we solve the Killing spinor equations of backgrounds with two $SU(4)\ltimes \bR^8$-invariant Killing spinors. We also solve the linear systems associated with the integrability conditions of maximally supersymmetric $Spin(7)\ltimes\bR^8$- and $SU(4)\ltimes\bR^8$-backgrounds and determine the field equations that are not implied by the Killing spinor equations.
We solve the Killing spinor equations of supersymmetric IIB backgrounds which admit one supersymmetry and the Killing spinor has stability subgroup G_2 in Spin(9,1) x U(1). We find that such backgrounds admit a time-like Killing vector field and the geometric structure of the spacetime reduces from Spin(9,1) x U(1) to G_2. We determine the type of G_2 structure that the spacetime admits by computing the covariant derivatives of the spacetime forms associated with the Killing spinor bilinears. We also solve the Killing spinor equations of backgrounds with two supersymmetries and Spin(7)\ltimes R^8-invariant spinors, and four supersymmetries with SU(4)\ltimes R^8- and with G_2-invariant spinors. We show that the Killing spinor equations factorize in two sets, one involving the geometry and the five-form flux, and the other the three-form flux and the scalars. In the Spin(7)\ltimes R^8 and SU(4)\ltimes R^8 cases, the spacetime admits a parallel null vector field and so the spacetime metric can be locally described in terms of Penrose coordinates adapted to the associated rotation free, null, geodesic congruence. The transverse space of the congruence is a Spin(7) and a SU(4) holonomy manifold, respectively. In the G_2 case, all the fluxes vanish and the spacetime is the product of a three-dimensional Minkowski space with a holonomy G_2 manifold.
We reduce the classification of all supersymmetric backgrounds in eleven dimensions to the evaluation of the supercovariant derivative and of an integrability condition, which contains the field equations, on six types of spinors. We determine the expression of the supercovariant derivative on all six types of spinors and give in each case the field equations that do not arise as the integrability conditions of Killing spinor equations. The Killing spinor equations of a background become a linear system for the fluxes, geometry and spacetime derivatives of the functions that determine the spinors. The solution of the linear system expresses the fluxes in terms of the geometry and specifies the restrictions on the geometry of spacetime for all supersymmetric backgrounds. We also show that the minimum number of field equations that is needed for a supersymmetric configuration to be a solution of eleven-dimensional supergravity can be found by solving a linear system. The linear systems of the Killing spinor equations and their integrability conditions are given in both a timelike and a null spinor basis. We illustrate the construction with examples.
We investigate the Killing spinor equations of IIB supergravity for one Killing spinor. We show that there are three types of orbits of Spin(9,1) in the space of Weyl spinors which give rise to Killing spinors with stability subgroups $Spin(7)\ltimes \bR^8$, $SU(4)\ltimes \bR^8$ and $G_2$. We solve the Killing spinor equations for the $Spin(7)\ltimes \bR^8$ and $SU(4)\ltimes \bR^8$ invariant spinors, give the fluxes in terms of the geometry and determine the conditions on the spacetime geometry imposed by supersymmetry. In both cases, the spacetime admits a null, self-parallel, Killing vector field. We also apply our formalism to examine a class of $SU(4)\ltimes \bR^8$ backgrounds which admit one and two pure spinors as Killing spinors and investigate the geometry of the spacetimes.
We construct the most general non-extremal deformation of the D-instanton solution with maximal rotational symmetry. The general non-supersymmetric solution carries electric charges of the SL(2,R) symmetry, which correspond to each of the three conjugacy classes of SL(2,R). Our calculations naturally generalise to arbitrary dimensions and arbitrary dilaton couplings. We show that for specific values of the dilaton coupling parameter, the non-extremal instanton solutions can be viewed as wormholes of non-extremal Reissner-Nordström black holes in one higher dimension. We extend this result by showing that for other values of the dilaton coupling parameter, the non-extremal instanton solutions can be uplifted to non-extremal non-dilatonic p-branes in p+1 dimensions higher. Finally, we attempt to consider the solutions as instantons of (compactified) type IIB superstring theory. In particular, we derive an elegant formula for the instanton action. We conjecture that the non-extremal D-instantons can contribute to the R^8-terms in the type IIB string effective action.
We construct the most general non-extremal spherically symmetric instanton solution of a gravity-dilaton-axion system with $SL(2,R)$ symmetry, for arbitrary euclidean spacetime dimension $D\geq 3$. A subclass of these solutions describe completely regular wormhole geometries, whose size is determined by an invariant combination of the $SL(2,R)$ charges. Our results can be applied to four-dimensional effective actions of type II strings compactified on a Calabi-Yau manifold, and in particular to the universal hypermultiplet coupled to gravity. We show that these models contain regular wormhole solutions, supported by regular dilaton and RR scalar fields of the universal hypermultiplet.
Performing a Scherk-Schwarz dimensional reduction of D=11 supergravity on a three-dimensional group manifold we construct five D=8 gauged maximal supergravities whose gauge groups are the three-dimensional (non-)compact subgroups of SL(3,R). These cases include the Salam-Sezgin SO(3) gauged supergravity. We construct the most general half-supersymmetric domain wall solutions to these five gauged supergravities. The generic form is a triple domain wall solution whose truncations lead to double and single domain wall solutions. We find that one of the single domain wall solutions has zero potential but nonzero superpotential. Upon uplifting to 11 dimensions each domain wall becomes a purely gravitational 1/2 BPS solution. The corresponding metric has a 7+4 split with a Minkowski 7-metric and a 4-metric that corresponds to a gravitational instanton. These instantons generalize the SO(3) metric of Belinsky, Gibbons, Page and Pope (which includes the Eguchi-Hanson metric) to the other Bianchi types of class A.
We construct five different two-parameter massive deformations of the unique nine-dimensional N=2 supergravity. All of these deformations have a higher-dimensional origin via Scherk-Schwarz reduction and correspond to gauged supergravities. The gauge groups we encounter are SO(2), SO(1,1)^+, R, R^+ and the two-dimensional non-Abelian Lie group A(1), which consists of scalings and translations in one dimension. We make a systematic search for half-supersymmetric domain walls and non-supersymmetric de Sitter space solutions. Furthermore, we discuss in which sense the supergravities we have constructed can be considered as low-energy limits of compactified superstring theory.
We investigate half-supersymmetric domain wall solutions of four maximally supersymmetric D=9 massive supergravity theories obtained by Scherk-Schwarz reduction of D=10 IIA and IIB supergravity. One of the theories does not have a superpotential and does not allow domain wall solutions preserving any supersymmetry. The other three theories have superpotentials leading to half-supersymmetric domain wall solutions, one of which has zero potential but non-zero superpotential. The uplifting of these domain wall solutions to ten dimensions leads to three classes of half-supersymmetric Type IIB 7-brane solutions. All solutions within each class are related by SL(2,R) transformations. The three classes together contain solutions carrying all possible (quantised) 7-brane charges. One class contains the well-known D7-brane solution and its dual partners and we provide the explicit solutions for the other two classes. The domain wall solution with zero potential lifts up to a half-supersymmetric conical space-time.