2000/01/01 by Anton Kapustin · 7 citations
Physics and Astronomy · Mathematics · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Worldsheet #Noncommutative geometry #Physics #Brane cosmology #Connection (principal bundle) #Vector bundle #Torsion (gastropod) #Gauge theory #Mathematical physics #String theory #Theoretical physics #String field theory #Pure mathematics #Mathematics #Geometry
paper · pdf · doi:10.4310/atmp.2000.v4.n1.a3
openalex publication_date 2000/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
We study global worldsheet anomalies for open strings ending on several coincident D-branes in the presence of a jB-field. We show that cancellation of anomalies is made possible by a correlation between the t'Hooft magnetic flux on the D-branes and the topological class of the 5-field. One application of our results is a proper understanding of the geometric nature of the gauge field living on D-branes: rather than being a connection on a vector bundle, it is a connection on a module over a certain noncommutative algebra. Our argument works for a general closed string background. We also explain why in the presence of a topologically nontrivial J5-field whose curvature is pure torsion D-branes represent classes in a twisted K-theory, as conjectured by E. Witten.