Search arXiv⌕ Search

arXiv · hep-th/9803205

Gravitational Anomaly Cancellation for M-Theory Fivebranes

Abstract

We study gravitational anomalies for fivebranes in M theory. We show that an apparent anomaly in diffeomorphisms acting on the normal bundle is cancelled by a careful treatment of the M theory Chern-Simons coupling in the presence of fivebranes. One interesting aspect of our treatment is the way in which a magnetic object (the fivebrane) is smoothed out through coupling to gravity and the resulting relation between antisymmetric tensor gauge transformations and diffeomorphisms in the presence of a fivebrane.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

D. Freed, J. A. Harvey, R. Minasian, G. Moore. 1998-03-25. Gravitational Anomaly Cancellation for M-Theory Fivebranes. https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9803205

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Euler-Heisenberg actions in higher dimensions

Using Schwinger's proper-time formalism, we compute the one-loop effective action in both spinor and scalar quantum electrodynamics in $d=2n>4$ dimensions using algebraic techniques. We derive the closed form expression for the corresponding Euler-Heisenberg Lagrangian, and extract its weak-field approximation in 6, 8 and 10 dimensions in terms of invariants of the electromagnetic field. A subsequent analysis of pair production in $d$ dimensions is given. We also elaborate on conformal actions for the electromagnetic field in $d=2n>4$ dimensions. In the $d=6$ and 8 cases, such actions are generated by DeWitt's coefficients $a_3$ and $a_4$ which, for completeness, are re-computed in this work for spinor QED and scalar QED, respectively.

hep-th↗

Finite-time memory detectors and fully constraining Faddeev-Kulish dressings in QED and gravity

We show that for both QED and perturbative quantum gravity, time dependent Faddeev-Kulish dressings can be fully constrained either by symmetry, or by demanding that they reproduce the correct outgoing classical memory contribution. For gravity, we show that using this dressing to construct finite-time Fock spaces allows us to recover both the first order gravitational memory, as well as higher order Christodoulou contributions from the gravitational field. We explain how these higher order perturbative corrections arise in inclusive in-in calculations.

hep-th↗

Effect of $ξRϕ^2$ non-minimal coupling on gravitational light bending

We investigate the bending of massless fields by a massive object in the presence of a curvature-scalar $\sqrt{-g}ξR ϕ^2$ non-minimal coupling up to one loop, using the perturbative quantum gravity computations. It is well known that without such coupling a self interacting scalar field theory cannot be renormalised in the presence of gravity. The massive object is modelled by a massive scalar $ϕ$, and it is assumed to be non-relativistic, e.g., a star. We compute the 2-2 scattering of massless scalar and photons off this object via graviton exchanges. Assuming both $ξ$ and the bending angle to be small, we use the eikonal approximation to compute the angle up to ${\cal O}(ξG^2)$. At tree level $({\cal O}(ξG))$ we find no bending, and hence the ${\cal O}(ξG^2)$ result happens to be leading in this case. The non-minimal vertices are qualitatively different from that of the standard minimal ones, e.g. $ \sqrt{G} h_{μν} T^{μν}$, as the former contains explicit momenta of the gravitons instead of the scalar, complementing the second. The bending angle is found to behave like $\sim b^{-7}$, where $b$ is the impact parameter. We have emphasised the qualitative differences of our results from that of the well studied minimal case.

hep-th↗