2003/12/05 by Emanuel Diaconescu, Diaconescu, Emanuel, Daniel S. Freed +3 · 4 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Computational Physics and Python Applications #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.hep-th/0312069
48pp. harvmac b-mode; v2: Several improvements added in response to the referee's comments. Typos fixed
arxiv created 2004/03/23 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
We give a precise formulation of the M-theory 3-form potential C in a fashion applicable to topologically nontrivial situations. In our model the 3-form is related to the Chern-Simons form of an E8 gauge field. This leads to a precise version of the Chern-Simons interaction of 11-dimensional supergravity on manifolds with and without boundary. As an application of the formalism we give a formula for the electric C-field charge, as an integral cohomology class, induced by self-interactions of the 3-form and by gravity. As further applications, we identify the M-theory Chern-Simons term as a cubic refinement of a trilinear form, we clarify the physical nature of Witten's global anomaly for 5-brane partition functions, we clarify the relation of M-theory flux quantization to K-theoretic quantization of RR charge, and we indicate how the formalism can be applied to heterotic M-theory.