Polynomial duality-symmetric lagrangians for free p-forms
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the properties of polynomial Lagrangians for chiral p-forms and provide a self-contained treatment of the symmetries and equations of motion that shows a great economy and simplicity of this formalism.
Abstract: We explore the properties of polynomial Lagrangians for chiral p-forms previously proposed by the last named author, and in particular, provide a self-contained treatment of the symmetries and equations of motion that shows a great economy and simplicity of this formalism. We further use analogous techniques to construct polynomial democratic Lagrangians for general p-forms where electric and magnetic potentials appear on equal footing as explicit dynamical variables. Due to our reliance on the differential form notation, the construction is compact and universally valid for forms of all ranks, in any number of dimensions.
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TL;DR: In this article , the authors compare three approaches to constructing Lagrangian theories of self-interacting Abelian chiral form fields with manifest Lorentz invariance: Pasti, Sorokin, and Tonin (PST), Sen's approach, and the clone field formalism.
Abstract: We briefly review and critically compare three approaches to constructing Lagrangian theories of self-interacting Abelian chiral form fields with manifest Lorentz invariance. The first approach relies on the original ideas of Pasti, Sorokin, and Tonin (PST) and has been explored since the late 1990s. The second approach was introduced by Ashoke Sen in 2015. The third approach has been developed over the last few years in the works of the present authors and other collaborators and may be called the 'clone field' formalism since it features an auxiliary 'clone' of the gauge field sector. We argue that this last approach shares the attractive features of the other two while avoiding their respective shortcomings. Like in Sen's approach, within the clone field formalism, arbitrary interactions can be straightforwardly included in any number of dimensions (treating interactions becomes very difficult in the PST formalism in dimensions greater than 6). Like in the PST approach, all the auxiliary fields are gauged away on-shell (while in Sen's approach, they merely decouple from the physical fields but remain dynamical).
7 citations
DOI•
13 Jun 2022
TL;DR: In this paper , a rigid superspace Lagrangian is presented for noninteracting tensor multiplets living on a stack of M5-branes and containing all the physical constraints on the 3-form strengths.
Abstract: Motivated by Sen’s spacetime prescription for the construction of theories with self-dual field strengths, we present a rigid superspace Lagrangian describing noninteracting tensor multiplets living on a stack of M5-branes and containing all the physical constraints on the fields, yielding the on-shell matching of the degrees of freedom. The geometric superspace approach adopted here offers a natural realization of superdiffeomorphisms and is particularly well suited for the coupling to supergravity. However, within this formulation the (anti-)self-duality property of the 3-form field strengths is lost when the superspace Lagrangian is trivially restricted to spacetime. We propose two main paths to address this issue: a first-order superspace extension of Sen’s spacetime results, which, once trivially restricted to spacetime, yields all the dynamical equations including the (anti-)self-duality constraint on the 3-form field strengths, and a possible way to obtain a full superspace description of the theory, based
6 citations
21 Dec 2022
TL;DR: In this article , the authors show how to pass between different approaches to chiral bosons starting from a Chern Simons point of view to recover formulations of Pasti, Sorokin and Tonin and of Mkrtchyan.
Abstract: Chiral bosons, or self-dual p-form fields, are ubiquitous in string theoretic contexts but are challenging to treat. Lagrangian constructions invariably introduce a complexity be it auxiliary fields or sacrificing Lorentz invariance. In this note we show how to pass between such different approaches to chiral bosons starting from a Chern Simons point of view to recover formulations of Pasti, Sorokin and Tonin and of Mkrtchyan. This leads to a novel generalisation of the latter to include non-Abelian chiral bosons in 2-dimensions, and generalisations to include twisted self-duality which are relevant in T-duality symmetric approaches to string theory. Our approach also shows how global affine symmetries of two- and higher-dimensional chiral bosons emerge from broken Chern-Simons gauge transformations on the boundary.
4 citations
TL;DR: In this article , a universal democratic Lagrangian for the bosonic sector of ten-dimensional type II supergravities was presented, treating electric and magnetic potentials of all RR fields on equal footing.
Abstract: We present a universal democratic Lagrangian for the bosonic sector of ten-dimensional type II supergravities, treating “electric” and “magnetic” potentials of all RR fields on equal footing. For type IIB, this includes the five-form whose self-duality equation is derived from the Lagrangian. We also present an alternative form of the action for type IIB, with manifest SL (2 , R ) symmetry.
3 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose a complete, $d\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}} = \phantom''rule {0ex}0ex''6$ covariant and kappa-symmetric, action for the $M$ theory five-brane propagating in a supergravity background, which can be used for studying corresponding dualities and nonperturbative aspects of these theories.
Abstract: We propose a complete, $d\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}6$ covariant and kappa-symmetric, action for the $M$ theory five-brane propagating in $D\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}11$ supergravity background. This opens a direct way of relating a wide class of super- $p$-brane solutions of string theory with the five-brane of $M$ theory, which should be useful for studying corresponding dualities and nonperturbative aspects of these theories.
501 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a closed string theory based on the "doubled" set of string coordinates (x = x + + x−, x = x+ − x−) is discussed, which is manifestly invariant under the duality transformations.
472 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the duality symmetry of torus compactifications can be realized as a symmetry of a world sheet action and the corresponding double volume factor is duality symmetric.
445 citations
TL;DR: Two-dimensional Poincareaa-invariant self-dual fields are consistently quantized and a fermionic formulation is shown to be equivalent to a nonlocal bosonic one.
Abstract: Two-dimensional Poincareaa-invariant self-dual fields are consistently quantized. A fermionic formulation is shown to be equivalent to a nonlocal bosonic one. Self-dual boson fields are solitons describing a charge-density wave of paired fermions.
408 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a general procedure for constructing actions containing both potentials at the same time was described, such that the dual relationship of the field strengths arises as an equation of motion.
402 citations