The Loop Group of E8 and Targets for Spacetime

Abstract

The dimensional reduction of the E8 gauge theory in eleven dimensions leads to a loop bundle in ten dimensional type IA string theory. We show that the restriction to the Neveu-Schwarz sector leads naturally to a sigma model with target space E8 with the ten-dimensional spacetime as the source. The corresponding bundle has a structure group the group of based loops, whose classifying space we study. We explore some consequences of this proposal such as possible Lagrangians and existence of flat connections.

17 pages, main section improved, change in title, reference and acknowledgement added

References in corpus (3)

• Twisted K-theory and loop group representations
• The M-theory 3-form and E8 gauge theory
• Gerbes, (twisted) K-theory, and the supersymmetric WZW model