Anomaly Inflow and Gauge Group Topology in the 10d Sugimoto String Theory

Vittorio Larotonda; Ling Lin

theoretical high-energy physics

Anomaly Inflow and Gauge Group Topology in the 10d Sugimoto String Theory

arXiv:2412.17894

summary

The paper studies chiral spectra on branes in the 10‑dimensional non‑supersymmetric Sugimoto string model, showing that anomaly inflow is cancelled via a Green–Schwarz mechanism and arguing that the gauge group has the global structure Sp(16)/Z₂.

Abstract

We revisit the chiral spectra on charged 1- and 5-branes in the 10d non-supersymmetric $sp (16)$ string theory (also known as the Sugimoto model), and verify that they consistently cancel the anomaly inflow induced by a Green--Schwarz mechanism in the bulk. By analyzing the $sp (16)$ representations arising from quantizing the fermion zero modes on these branes as well as uncharged 4-branes, we find compelling evidence that the global structure of the gauge group is $S p (16) / Z_{2}$ . We further comment on a possible duality to non-supersymmetric heterotic strings, and explore bottom-up anomaly inflow constraints for 10d effective $S p (16) / Z_{2}$ gauge theories coupled to gravity.

24 pages + appendices; v2: minor improvements; v3: typos corrected

Topics & keywords

#anomaly inflow #gauge group topology #non-supersymmetric string theory #brane spectra #green-schwarz mechanismSugimoto modelSp(16)/Z2chiral fermion zero modes10d effective theoryheterotic duality