O(D, D) and the string alpha' expansion: an obstruction
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Journal of High Energy Physics |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2021)013 |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2021)013 |
| Keywords | Bosonic Strings; Global Symmetries; String Duality; Superstrings and Heterotic Strings |
| Description | Double Field Theory (DFT) is an attempt to make the O(d, d) T-duality symmetry of string theory manifest, already before reducing on a d-torus. It is known that supergravity can be formulated in an O(D, D) covariant way, and remarkably this remains true to the first order in alpha'. We set up a systematic way to analyze O(D, D) invariants, working order by order in fields, which we carry out up to order alpha'(3). At order alpha' we recover the known Riemann squared invariant, while at order alpha'(2) we find no independent invariant. This is compatible with the alpha' expansion in string theory. However, at order alpha'(3) we show that there is again no O(D, D) invariant, in contradiction to the fact that all string theories have quartic Riemann terms with coefficient proportional to zeta(3). We conclude that DFT and similar frameworks cannot capture the full alpha' expansion in string theory. |
| Related projects: |