M Theory, Type IIA Superstrings, and Elliptic Cohomology
High Energy Physics - Theory
2007-05-23 v3 Algebraic Topology
Abstract
The topological part of the M-theory partition function was shown by Witten to be encoded in the index of an E8 bundle in eleven dimensions. This partition function is, however, not automatically anomaly-free. We observe here that the vanishing W_7=0 of the Diaconescu-Moore-Witten anomaly in IIA and compactified M-theory partition function is equivalent to orientability of spacetime with respect to (complex-oriented) elliptic cohomology. Motivated by this, we define an elliptic cohomology correction to the IIA partition function, and propose its relationship to interaction between 2-branes and 5-branes in the M-theory limit.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.hep-th/0404013,
title = {M Theory, Type IIA Superstrings, and Elliptic Cohomology},
author = {Igor Kriz and Hisham Sati},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/0404013},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
51 pages, latex2e, typos corrected. Published version