A Unifying Topological Action for Heterotic and Type II Superstring Theories

Abstract

The heterotic and type II superstring actions are identified in different anomaly-free decompositions of a single topological sigma-model action depending on bosonic and fermionic coordinates, $X^{\mu }$ and $\r^A$ respectively, and of their topological ghosts. This model results from gauge-fixing the topological gauge symmetry $\delta X^{\mu }={\epsilon }^{\mu }(z,\bar{z})$ ($\mu =1,2,\dots ,10$) and $δ\r^α= ε^α(z,\bar z)$. ($\alpha =1,2.\dots ,16$). From another viewpoint the heterotic and type II superstring actions emerge as two different gauge-fixings of the same closed two-form. Comments are also made concerning the possibility of relating ${\rho }^{\alpha }$ to a Majorana-Weyl space-time spinor superpartner of $X^{\mu }$.

14 pages, LaTeX, no figures

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• Eight-Dimensional Topological Gravity and its Correspondence with Supergravity
• Covariant Map Between Ramond-Neveu-Schwarz and Pure Spinor Formalisms for the Superstring
• Supergravity and the Knitting of the Kalb--Ramond Two-Form in Eight-Dimensional Topological Gravity
• Worldsheets with Extended Supersymmetry
• Gravitational Topological Quantum Field Theory Versus N = 2 D = 8 Supergravity and its lift to N = 1 D = 11 Supergravity
• A Note on Consistent Anomalies