English

Orientifolds, RR Torsion, and K-theory

High Energy Physics - Theory 2010-02-03 v2

Abstract

We analyze the role of RR fluxes in orientifold backgrounds from the point of view of K-theory, and demonstrate some physical implications of describing these fluxes in K-theory rather than cohomology. In particular, we show that certain fractional shifts in RR charge quantization due to discrete RR fluxes are naturally explained in K-theory. We also show that some orientifold backgrounds, which are considered distinct in the cohomology classification, become equivalent in the K-theory description, while others become unphysical.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/0103183,
  title  = {Orientifolds, RR Torsion, and K-theory},
  author = {O. Bergman and E. Gimon and S. Sugimoto},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/0103183},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

30 pages, 5 figures; typos corrected and references added