T-duality for orientifolds and twisted KR-theory (Q479683)

The paper is devoted to describe a \(K\)-theory needed to describe T-duality for orientifolds and compute them in simple cases important for spacetime of form \(\mathbb R^k \times X^{10-k}\), where \(X^{10-k}\) denotes a \(10-k\) dimensional manifold, equipped with an involution \(\imath\). Let \(\Sigma\) be a string worldsheet, i.e. an oriented 2-manifold with/without boundary, \(\Omega\) - the worldsheet parity operator, i.e. an orientation-reserving involution on \(\Sigma\). The orientifold string theories are defined by the sigma-models with target space an orientifold \((X,\imath)\) and the fundamental strings are the equivariant maps \(\varphi: \Sigma \to X\) those commute \(\imath\) and \(\Omega\) in the sense \(\imath\circ\varphi = \varphi\circ \Omega\). D-branes on orientifolds \((X,\imath)\) are classified by pairs of Chan-Paton vector bundles, each with conjugate-linear involution compatible with \(\imath\), modulo creation and annihilation of charge zero D-branes \((H,H)\), as in the stable equivalence relation \((E,F) \sim (E\oplus H, F\oplus H)\) The real \(K\)-theory of M. F. Atiyah is the \(K\)-theory of real vector bundles, i.e. complex vector bundles with a conjugate-linear vector bundle morphism of identity square and commuting with involution \(\imath\). \(\mathrm{KR}(X)\) is the group of pairs of Real vector bundles \((E,F)\) modulo the stable equivalence relation \((E,F) \sim (E\oplus H, F\oplus H)\) and the higher KR groups are defined as \[ \mathrm{KR}^{p,q}(X) = \mathrm{KR}(X\times (\mathbb R^p+i\mathbb R^q)). \] Because of periodicity, \(\mathrm{KR}^{p,q}(X) \cong \mathrm{KR}^{p+1,q+1}(X)\) and one defines \(\mathrm{KR}^{q-p}(X) = \mathrm{KR}^{p,q}(X)\). The \(K\)-theory \(\mathrm{KR}^{-j}(X)\) is periodic of period 8 and the relative KR-groups are defined through quotient \(\mathrm{KR}^{-j}(X,Y) = \mathrm{KR}^{-j}(X/Y)\). The reduced KR-groups \(\widetilde{\mathrm{KR}}^{-j}(X)\) are defined through projection on a fixed point \(\mathrm{KR}^{-j}(X) = \widetilde{\mathrm{KR}}^{-j}(X) \oplus \mathrm{KR}^{-j}(\mathrm{pt})\). This is the KR theory of pairs of O-planes with same sign choice for classifying the type \(IA\) and \(\widetilde{IA}\) D-branes. For the physical theory of pairs of O-planes with different signs, the authors constructed the corresponding \(\mathrm{KR}_\alpha\)-theory with sign choice \(\alpha\) as some topological \(K\)-theory of some noncommutative Banach algebra \(\mathcal A_\alpha\). The main results are Theorems 1 (existence of \(\mathcal A_\alpha\)), 2(the existence of long exact sequences), 3(spectral sequences), 4(computation for 2-dimensional torus \(\mathbb T^2\)). The authors considered also the twisted version and explained why it is needed. The paper is a good introduction to the subject.