Dualities and the SL(2,Z) Anomaly

Abstract

The SL(2,Z) anomaly recently derived for type IIB supergravity in 10 dimensions is shown to be a consequence of T-duality with the type IIA string, after compactification to 2 dimensions on an 8-fold. This explains the identity of the gravitational 8-forms appearing in different contexts in the effective actions of type IIA and IIB string theories. In this framework, constraints on the compactification manifold arise from modular invariance of the 2d theory. Related issues in 6 dimensions are examined, and it is argued that similar anomalies are present on the worldvolumes of M-theory 5-branes and orientifold 5-planes.

harvmac, 13 pages (b); minor changes, a footnote and a reference added

References in corpus (4)

• Gravitational Couplings and $Z_2$ Orientifolds
• A Note on Low-Dimensional String Compactifications
• Anomaly Inflow on Orientifold Planes
• An SL(2,Z) anomaly in IIB supergravity and its F-theory interpretation

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Why are fractional charges of orientifolds compatible with Dirac quantization?
• Gravitational Couplings, Orientifolds and M-Planes
• Gravitational couplings of orientifold planes
• Chern-Simons couplings, modular duality, and anomaly cancellation in abelian F-theory