English

Kodaira-Spencer theory for Courant algebroids

Mathematical Physics 2026-02-05 v1 High Energy Physics - Theory math.MP Symplectic Geometry

Abstract

Studying Courant algebroids on dg ringed manifolds, we observe that the associated Roytenberg-Weinstein LL_\infty algebra admits a local structure reminiscent of a shifted contact structure. On a dg ringed manifold with an nn-orientation, its symplectification produces a sheaf of (2n)(2-n)-shifted symplectic formal moduli problems, which we call the Courant contact model. This construction can be interpreted as a (Z/2Z\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}-graded) theory in the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism whenever nn is odd. After developing the procedure of reduction and extension of scalars, we show how twisted backgrounds in type I supergravity naturally lead to Courant algebroids over the Dolbeault complex. Specialising to the case of a Calabi-Yau fivefold, we show that the Courant contact model for that Courant algebroid is equivalent to a central extension of minimal type I BCOV theory. Inspired by this, we extend the conjecture of Costello and Li and place it within the setting of generalized geometry, conjecturing a description of the BV formulation of type I supergravity in general twisted backgrounds.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.04658,
  title  = {Kodaira-Spencer theory for Courant algebroids},
  author = {Julian Kupka and Ingmar Saberi and Charles Strickland-Constable and Fridrich Valach},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.04658},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

30 pages, no figures. Comments welcome!