Equivariant cohomotopy implies orientifold tadpole cancellation

DOI10.1016/J.GEOMPHYS.2020.103775MaRDI QIDQ2197168zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Hisham Sati, Urs Schreiber

Publication date 28 August 2020

Published in Journal of Geometry and Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.12277

zbMATH Keywords

anomaly cancelationequivariant cohomotopyM-theoryorbi-orientifoldsRR-field tadpole cancelation

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Equivariant homotopy groups (55Q91) Topology and geometry of orbifolds (57R18) String and superstring theories; other extended objects (e.g., branes) in quantum field theory (81T30) Matrix models and tensor models for quantum field theory (81T32) Quantization in field theory; cohomological methods (81T70)

Abstract: There are fundamental open problems in the precise global nature of RR-field tadpole cancellation conditions in string theory. Moreover, the non-perturbative lift as M5/MO5-anomaly cancellation in M-theory had been based on indirect plausibility arguments,lacking a microscopic underpinning in M-brane charge quantization. We provide a framework for answering these questions, crucial not only for mathematical consistency but also for phenomenological accuracy of string theory, by formulating the M-theory C-field on flat M-orientifolds in the generalized cohomology theory called Equivariant Cohomotopy. This builds on our previous results for smooth but curved spacetimes, showing in that setting that charge quantization in twisted Cohomotopy rigorously implies a list of expected anomaly cancellation conditions. Here we further expand this list by proving that brane charge quantization in unstable equivariant Cohomotopy implies the anomaly cancellation conditions for M-branes and D-branes on flat orbi-orientifolds. For this we (a) use an unstable refinement of the equivariant Hopf-tom Dieck theorem to derive local/twisted tadpole cancellation, and (b) the lift to super-differential cohomology to establish global/untwisted tadpole cancellation. Throughout, we use (c) the unstable Pontrjagin-Thom theorem to identify the brane/O-plane configurations encoded in equivariant Cohomotopy and (d) the Boardman homomorphism to equivariant K-theory to identify Chan-Paton representations of D-brane charge. We find that unstable equivariant Cohomotopy, but not its image in K-theory, distinguishes D-brane charge from the finite set of types of O-plane charges.

Review text

The authors show that brane charge quantization in unstable equivariant Cohomotopy implies the anomaly cancelation conditions for M-branes and D-branes on flat orbi-orientifolds. The authors first discuss basics of plain unstable Cohomotopy on plain manifolds and show that the unstable Pontrjagin-Thom theorem identifies cocycles in unstable Cohomotopy theory with cobordism classes of submanifolds carrying certain extra structure. These submanifolds are naturally identified with the worldvolumes of branes that source the corresponding Cohomotopy charge, and the normal structure they carry corresponds to the charge carried by the branes, distinguishing branes from anti-branes. Furthermore the coboundaries in unstable Cohomotopy correspond to brane pair creation/annihilation processes. The authors introduce the enhancement of this situation to equivariant Cohomotopy on toroidal orbifolds, where it encodes joint D-brane and O-plane charges. They show that the equivariant Hopf degree theorem encodes the form of local/twisted tadpole cancelation conditions, and explain that super-differential refinement at global Elmendorf stage encodes the form of global/untwisted tadpole cancelation conditions. Finally, the authors specify these general considerations to the physics of M5-branes at MO5-planes in toroidal ADE-orientifolds in M-theory, with the \(C\)-field charge-quantized in equivariant Cohomotopy theory. For this purpose the authors discuss the situation of heterotic M-theory on ADE-orbifolds and highlight subtleties in the interpretation of MO5-planes. With this in hand, they apply the general discussion of equivariant Cohomotopy to ADE-singularities intersecting MO9-planes in M-theory, and find that this correctly encodes the expected anomaly cancellation of M5-branes at MO5-planes, and the RR-field tadpole anomaly cancelation for D-branes on ADE-orientifolds.

Recommendations

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• Tadpole versus anomaly cancellation in \(D=4,6\) compact IIB orientifolds

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