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Flux Quantization on M-Strings

High Energy Physics - Theory 2026-03-17 v1 Strongly Correlated Electrons Mathematical Physics Algebraic Topology math.MP

Abstract

The electric Gauss law in 11D SuGra is famously non-linear, whence its flux quantization must be in nonabelian cohomology. We have previously shown that the minimal admissible choice is 4-Cohomotopy, which in the presence of magnetized M5-probes takes its relative twistorial form. Here we discuss how this situation is further refined in the presence of M-string probes on the M5-worldvolume. Based on the superspace formulation of 11D SuGra, we find the nested Bianchi identities by iterating the superembedding construction for super p-branes. The resulting probe brane hierarchy (M1 on magnetized M5 in 11D bulk) turns out to admit flux quantization in a doubly-relative form of twisted Cohomotopy, classified by the factorization of the quaternionic Hopf fibration through the twistor fibration. The further equivariant refinement of this cohomology theory reduces on A-type singularities to a form of relative 2-Cohomotopy which geometrically engineers Chern-insulator phases on M5An\mathrm{M5}\cap \mathrm{A}_n, with the M-string playing the role of gapped nodal lines.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.14440,
  title  = {Flux Quantization on M-Strings},
  author = {Pinak Banerjee and Hisham Sati and Urs Schreiber},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.14440},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

25 pages, 4 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:20:48.149Z