What makes spacetime spin in string theory?

Abstract

Type II string theory in the absence of orientifolds requires the target spacetime $X$ to admit a spin structure. We show that this familiar requirement arises directly from the consistency of the worldsheet GSO projection. The obstruction is a mixed global anomaly between $(-1{)}^{{\text{F}}_L}$ and the target space background data, detected by the spin bordism group $\hat{I}{\text{c◯}}_3^{\mathrm{spin}}(B{\mathbb{Z}}_2\times X)$. We compute the relevant mixed bordism group and identify the bordism class of the GSO-projected worldsheet theory. For smooth target spaces, vanishing of the anomaly reduces to the condition that $X$ is spin, while for general orbifolds $[\hat{X}/G]$, $\hat{X}$ has to carry a $G$-equivariant spin structure. We also classify all possible theta angles in the worldsheet theory and show that they correspond to all possible continuous and discrete background fields of the target space theory visible in string perturbation theory.

27 pages + references