English

Global Worldsheet Anomalies from M-Theory

High Energy Physics - Theory 2008-11-26 v3

Abstract

We present an M-theory proof of the anomaly of Freed and Witten which in general shifts the quantisation law for the U(1) gauge field on a D6-brane. The derivation requires an understanding of how fields on the D6-brane lift to M-theory, together with a localisation formula which we prove using a U(1)-index theorem. We also show how the anomaly is related to the K-theory classification of Ramond-Ramond fields. In addition we discuss the M-theory origin of the D6-brane effective action, and illustrate the general arguments with a concrete example.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/0310147,
  title  = {Global Worldsheet Anomalies from M-Theory},
  author = {James Sparks},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/0310147},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

25 pages; v2: minor alterations, references added; v3: various arguments clarified, mathematical background added. Published version

R2 v1 2026-07-22T15:19:35.422Z