Super Weyl invariance: BPS equations from heterotic worldsheets

Abstract

It is well-known that the beta functions on a string worldsheet correspond to the target space equations of motion, e.g. the Einstein equations. We show that the BPS equations, i.e. the conditions of vanishing supersymmetry variations of the space-time fermions, can be directly derived from the worldsheet. To this end we consider the RNS-formulation of the heterotic string with (2,0) supersymmetry, which describes a complex torsion target space that supports a holomorphic vector bundle. After a detailed account of its quantization and renormalization, we establish that the cancellation of the Weyl anomaly combined with (2,0) finiteness implies the heterotic BPS conditions: At the one loop level the geometry is required to be conformally balanced and the gauge background has to satisfy the Hermitean Yang-Mills equations.

1+31 pages LaTeX, 5 figures; final version, discussion relation Weyl invariance and (2,0) finiteness extended, typos corrected

References in corpus (4)

• Anomaly Cancellation and Smooth Non-Kahler Solutions in Heterotic String Theory
• Torsional Heterotic Geometries
• alpha'-Corrections to Heterotic Superstring Effective Action Revisited
• Generalized Kähler Geometry in (2,1) superspace

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• GLSMs for non-Kahler Geometries
• Conformal Invariance of (0,2) Sigma Models on Calabi-Yau Manifolds
• Zoology of heterotic supercurrent supermultiplets in d=2