2013/08/31 by Olaf Hohm, Henning Samtleben · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.111.231601
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 231601 (2013) · 5 pages, v2: typos in eqs. (18), (21) corrected; minor changes; to appear in Physical Review Letters
arxiv created 2013/11/25 · arxiv updated 2013/12/16
Eleven-dimensional supergravity reveals large exceptional symmetries upon reduction, in accordance with the U-duality groups of M-theory, but their higher-dimensional geometric origin has remained a mystery. In this letter, we show that D=11 supergravity can be extended to be fully covariant under the exceptional groups En(n), n=6,7,8. Motivated by a similar formulation of double field theory we introduce an extended `exceptional spacetime'. We illustrate the construction by giving the explicit E6(6) covariant form: the full D=11 supergravity, in a 5+6 splitting of coordinates but without truncation, embeds into an E6(6) covariant 5+27 dimensional theory. We argue that this covariant form likewise comprises type IIB supergravity.