Dresden 2000 – scientific programme

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MP: Theoretische und Mathematische Grundlagen der Physik

MP 17: Poster

MP 17.5: Poster

Thursday, March 23, 2000, 10:15–17:45, W A317

Discrete U-duality symmetries in M-theory — •Germar Schröder — Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik, Albert-Einstein-Institut, Am Mühlenberg 1, D-14424 Potsdam

The study of non-perturbative duality symmetries has dramatically changed our understanding of supersymmetric field theories and string theory. U-duality is one of these symmetries, combining target space (T-)duality and strong-weak coupling (S-)duality in one symmetry group. In this talk, the structure of U-duality groups is analyzed. Generators of U-duality groups of toroidal compactified type II theory are given in d>2 by investigating DSZ quantization, using Freudenthal’s construction of exceptional Lie algebras. T- and S-duality, that appear as subgroups, are investigated and shown to involve several subtleties. For d=3, U-duality is generated by exploiting different orders of compactification to d=3, and merging the discrete d=4 U-dualities together. Surprisingly, in a toy model corresponding to d=5 simple supergravity, this method is shown to give a discrete group strictly smaller than the one expected in analogy to higher dimensional cases. However, for M-theory, agreement with the expected result is found.