Related papers: Twisted Cohomotopy implies M5-brane anomaly cancel…
We study the anomalies of a charge $Q_2$ self-dual string solution in the Coulomb branch of $Q_5$ M5-branes. Cancellation of these anomalies allows us to determine the anomaly of the zero-modes on the self-dual string and their scaling with…
We observe that there is a rigorous derivation of (abelian) anyonic quantum states, hence of "topological order", on the 1+2-dimensional fixed locus of M5-probes wrapped over a trivially Seifert-fibered 3-orbifold singularity. Similar…
We study the 't Hooft anomalies of four-dimensional superconformal field theories that arise from M5-branes wrapped on a punctured Riemann surface. In general there are two independent contributions to the anomalies. There is a bulk term…
The algebra of Noether supercharges of the M-5-brane effective action is shown to include both 2-form and 5-form central charges. Surprisingly, only the 5-form charge is entirely due to the Wess-Zumino term because the `naive' algebra is…
The compactification from the 11-dimensional Horava-Witten orbifold to 5-dimensional heterotic M-theory on a Schoen Calabi-Yau threefold is reviewed, as is the specific $SU(4)$ vector bundle leading to the "heterotic standard model" in the…
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…
We discuss the low energy effective theory of an M5-brane wrapped on a smooth holomorphic four-cycle of K3 x T^2, including the special case of T^6. In particular we give the lowest order equations of motion and resolve a puzzle concerning…
We consider the topological and geometric structures associated with cohomological and homological objects in M-theory. For the latter, we have M2-branes and M5-branes, the analysis of which requires the underlying spacetime to admit a…
We show that the gauge, gravitational (tangent-bundle) and their mixed anomalies arising from the localized modes near a 5-brane in the SO(32) heterotic string theory cancel with the anomaly inflow from the bulk with the use of the…
In five-dimensional heterotic M-theory there is necessarily nonzero background flux, which leads to gauging of an isometry of the universal hypermultiplet moduli space. This isometry, however, is poised to be broken by M5-brane instanton…
We analyze the global symmetries and anomalies of 4d $\mathcal{N} = 1$ field theories that arise from a stack of $N$ M5-branes probing a class of flux backgrounds. These backgrounds consist of a resolved $\mathbb{C}^2 / \mathbb{Z}_k$…
We derive global consistency condition for strongly coupled heterotic string in the presence of M5-branes. Its elliptic genus is interpretable as generating functional of anomaly polynomials and so, on anomaly-free vacua, the genus is both…
We introduce a differential refinement of Cohomotopy cohomology theory, defined on Penrose diagram spacetimes, whose cocycle spaces are unordered configuration spaces of points. First we prove that brane charge quantization in this…
We discuss general supersymmetric brane configurations in flux backgrounds of string and M-theory and derive a necessary condition for the worldvolume theory to be supersymmetric on a given curved manifold. This condition resembles very…
We construct cosmological solutions of four-dimensional effective heterotic M-theory with a moving five-brane and evolving dilaton and T modulus. It is shown that the five-brane generates a transition between two asymptotic rolling-radii…
A key open problem in M-theory is the mechanism of "gauge enhancement", which supposedly makes M-branes exhibit the nonabelian gauge degrees of freedom that are seen perturbatively in the limit of 10d string theory. In fact, since only the…
We demonstrate that twisted equivariant differential K-theory of transverse complex curves accommodates exotic charges of the form expected of codimension=2 defect branes, such as of D7-branes in IIB/F-theory on A-type orbifold…
We describe a systematic way of computing the 't Hooft anomalies for continuous symmetries of Quantum Field Theories in even dimensions that can be geometrically engineered from M5-branes. Our approach is based on anomaly inflow, and…
String theories with branes can often be generalized by adding brane-antibrane pairs. We explore the cancellation of anomalies in this more general context, extending the familiar anomaly-cancelling mechanisms, both for ten-dimensional…
We study the most general supersymmetric warped M-theory backgrounds with non-trivial G-flux of the type R^{1,2} x M_8 and AdS_3 x M_8. We give a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for preservation of supersymmetry which are phrased…