28.02.2007 (Wednesday)

Type II actions from 11D Chern-Simons theories

Regular Seminar Dmitriy Belov (Imperial)

at:
13:15 KCL
room 423
abstract:

This talk continues the discussion of hep-th/0605038, applying the holographic formulation of self-dual theory to the Ramond-Ramond fields of type II supergravity. We formulate the RR partition function, in the presence of nontrivial H-fields, in terms of the wavefunction of an 11-dimensional Chern-Simons theory. Using the methods of hep-th/0605038 we show how to formulate an action principle for the RR fields of both type IIA and type IIB supergravity, in the presence of RR current. We find a new topological restriction on consistent backgrounds of type IIA supergravity, namely the fourth Wu class must have a lift to the H-twisted cohomology.