On non-abelian T-duality and deformations of supercoset string sigma-models

Abstract

We elaborate on the class of deformed T-dual (DTD) models obtained by first adding a topological term to the action of a supercoset sigma model and then performing (non-abelian) T-duality on a subalgebra $\tilde{\mathfrak{g}}$ of the superisometry algebra. These models inherit the classical integrability of the parent one, and they include as special cases the so-called homogeneous Yang-Baxter sigma models as well as their non-abelian T-duals. Many properties of DTD models have simple algebraic interpretations. For example we show that their (non-abelian) T-duals---including certain deformations---are again in the same class, where $\tilde{\mathfrak{g}}$ gets enlarged or shrinks by adding or removing generators corresponding to the dualised isometries. Moreover, we show that Weyl invariance of these models is equivalent to $\tilde{\mathfrak{g}}$ being unimodular; when this property is not satisfied one can always remove one generator to obtain a unimodular $\tilde{\mathfrak{g}}$, which is equivalent to (formal) T-duality. We also work out the target space superfields and, as a by-product, we prove the conjectured transformation law for Ramond-Ramond (RR) fields under bosonic non-abelian T-duality of supercosets, generalising it to cases involving also fermionic T-dualities.