English

An analytic torsion for graded D-branes

High Energy Physics - Theory 2009-11-07 v2 Differential Geometry

Abstract

I consider the semiclassical approximation of the graded Chern-Simons field theories describing certain systems of topological A type branes in the large radius limit of Calabi-Yau compactifications. I show that the semiclassical partition function can be expressed in terms of a certain (differential) numerical invariant which is a version of the analytic torsion of Ray and Singer, but associated with flat graded superbundles. I also discuss a `twisted' version of the Ray-Singer norm, and show its independence of metric data. As illustration, I consider graded D-brane pairs of unit relative grade with a scalar condensate in the boundary condition changing sector. For the particularly simple case when the reference flat connections are trivial, I show that the generalized torsion reduces to a power of the classical Ray-Singer invariant of the base 3-manifold.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/0111239,
  title  = {An analytic torsion for graded D-branes},
  author = {C. I. Lazaroiu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/0111239},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

28 pages, no figures; v2: added a footnote and one reference, corrected a typo

R2 v1 2026-07-22T15:07:50.789Z