Duality-invariant extensions of Einstein-Maxwell theory

Abstract

We investigate higher-derivative extensions of Einstein-Maxwell theory that are invariant under electromagnetic duality rotations, allowing for non-minimal couplings between gravity and the gauge field. Working in a derivative expansion of the action, we characterize the Lagrangians giving rise to duality-invariant theories up to the eight-derivative level, providing the complete list of operators that one needs to include in the action. We also characterize the set of duality-invariant theories whose action is quadratic in the Maxwell field strength but which are non-minimally coupled to the curvature. Then we explore the effect of field redefinitions and we show that, to six derivatives, the most general duality-preserving theory can be mapped to Maxwell theory minimally coupled to a higher-derivative gravity containing only four non-topological higher-order operators. We conjecture that this is a general phenomenon at all orders, i.e, that any duality-invariant extension of Einstein-Maxwell theory is perturbatively equivalent to a higher-derivative gravity minimally coupled to Maxwell theory. Finally, we study charged black hole solutions in the six-derivative theory and we investigate additional constraints on the couplings motivated by the weak gravity conjecture.

arXiv comment40 pages, no figures; references added, minor fixes

References in corpus (45)

• Black Hole Entropy is Noether Charge
• Some Properties of Noether Charge and a Proposal for Dynamical Black Hole Entropy
• Unity of Superstring Dualities
• The String Landscape, Black Holes and Gravity as the Weakest Force
• Electric-Magnetic Duality Rotations in Non-Linear Electrodynamics
• The String Landscape and the Swampland
• Duality Symmetric Actions
• A non-linear duality-invariant conformal extension of Maxwell's equations
• Symmetries of higher-order string gravity actions
• Weak Gravity Conjecture from Unitarity and Causality
• Proof of the Weak Gravity Conjecture from Black Hole Entropy
• SL(2,R) Invariance of Non-Linear Electrodynamics Coupled to An Axion and a Dilaton
• Electric Magnetic Duality in String Theory
• Amplitudes' Positivity, Weak Gravity Conjecture, and Modified Gravity
• T-duality and ${\alpha }^{\prime }$-corrections
• Duality Invariant Cosmology to all Orders in ${\alpha }^{\prime }$
• Solution--Generating Transformations and the String Effective Action
• A Universal Relation Between Corrections to Entropy and Extremality
• The Odd story of ${\alpha }^{\prime }$-corrections
• All higher-curvature gravities as Generalized quasi-topological gravities
• Thermodynamics of 4D Dilatonic Black Holes and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• O$(d,d)$ covariant String Cosmology to all orders in ${\alpha }^{\prime }$
• Non-perturbative de Sitter vacua via ${\alpha }^{\prime }$ corrections
• Electric-Magnetic Duality Invariant Lagrangians
• Duality and Axionic Weak Gravity
• Electromagnetic Quasitopological Gravities
• Electric-Magnetic Duality in Supergravity
• Duality Invariance and Higher Derivatives
• Born-Infeld with Higher Derivatives
• On the extremality bound of stringy black holes
• String Dualities at Order ${\alpha }^{\prime 3}$
• T duality and Wald entropy formula in the Heterotic Superstring effective action at first order in ${\alpha }^{\prime }$
• O(n,n) invariance and Wald entropy formula in the Heterotic Superstring effective action at first order in alpha'
• Nonlinear Electromagnetic Self-Duality and Legendre Transformations
• Self-Duality in Nonlinear Electromagnetism
• Duality and Supersymmetry Constraints on the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• New non-perturbative de Sitter vacua in ${\alpha }^{\prime }$-complete cosmology
• $R^4$ terms in supergravities via T-duality constraint
• Electric-Magnetic Black Hole Duality
• Duality Invariant Born-Infeld Theory
• de Sitter, ${\alpha }^{\prime }$-Corrections & Duality Invariant Cosmology
• The Weak Gravity Conjecture, RG Flows, and Supersymmetry
• Pseudo-Duality
• Generalized Einstein-Scalar-Maxwell theories and locally geometric U-folds
• Four-dimensional geometric supergravity and electromagnetic duality: a brief guide for mathematicians

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Introductory Notes on Non-linear Electrodynamics and its Applications
• Accelerated Black Holes beyond Maxwell's Electrodynamics
• Asymptotic Safety: Swampland or Wonderland?
• Higher-derivative holography with a chemical potential
• A universal feature of charged entanglement entropy
• Repulsive Black Holes and Higher-Derivatives
• Effective observables for electromagnetic duality from novel amplitude decomposition
• $Ad{S}_2$ holography and ModMax
• Topological Mod(A)Max AdS black holes
• Exact electromagnetic duality with nonminimal couplings
• Waves and strings in an interacting conformal chiral 2-form theory in six dimensions
• Force-free higher derivative Einstein-Maxwell theory and multi-centered black holes
• Coupling ModMax theory precursor with scalars, and BIon-type solutions
• Non-supersymmetric black holes with ${\alpha }^{\prime }$ corrections