Morita equivalence and T-duality (or B versus $Θ$)

Abstract

T-duality in M(atrix) theory has been argued to be realized as Morita equivalence in Yang-Mills theory on a non-commutative torus (NCSYM). Even though the two have the same structure group, they differ in their action since Morita equivalence makes crucial use of an additional modulus on the NCSYM side, the constant Abelian magnetic background. In this paper, we reanalyze and clarify the correspondence between M(atrix) theory and NCSYM, and provide two resolutions of this puzzle. In the first of them, the standard map is kept and the extra modulus is ignored, but the anomalous transformation is offset by the M(atrix) theory ``rest term''. In the second, the standard map is modified so that the duality transformations agree, and a $SO(d)$ symmetry is found to eliminate the spurious modulus. We argue that this is a true symmetry of supersymmetric Born-Infeld theory on a non-commutative torus, which allows to freely trade a constant magnetic background for non-commutativity of the base-space. We also obtain a BPS mass formula for this theory, invariant under T-duality, U-duality, and continuous $SO(d)$ symmetry.