We introduce a moment map picture for holomorphic string algebroids where the Hamiltonian gauge action is described by means of inner automorphisms of Courant algebroids. The zero locus of our moment map is given by the solutions of the Calabi system, a coupled system of equations which provides a unifying framework for the classical Calabi problem and the Hull-Strominger system. Our main results are concerned with the geometry of the moduli space of solutions, and assume a technical condition which is fulfilled in examples. We prove that the moduli space carries a pseudo-Kähler metric with Kähler potential given by the dilaton functional, a topological formula for the metric, and an infinitesimal Donaldson-Uhlenbeck-Yau type theorem.
We introduce the category of holomorphic string algebroids, whose objects are Courant extensions of Atiyah Lie algebroids of holomorphic principal bundles, as considered by Bressler, and whose morphisms correspond to inner morphisms of the underlying holomorphic Courant algebroids in the sense of Severa. This category provides natural candidates for Atiyah Lie algebroids of holomorphic principal bundles for the (complexified) string group and their morphisms. Our main results are a classification of string algebroids in terms of Cech cohomology, and the construction of a locally complete famil…
In this paper, we use reduction by extended actions to give a construction of transitive Courant algebroids from string classes. We prove that T-duality commutes with the reductions and thereby determine global conditions for the existence of T-duals in heterotic string theory. In particular we find that T-duality exchanges string structures and gives an isomorphism of transitive Courant algebroids. Consequently we derive the T-duality transformation for generalised metrics and show that the heterotic Einstein equations are preserved. The presence of string structures significantly extends the…
Just like Atiyah Lie algebroids encode the infinitesimal symmetries of principal bundles, exact Courant algebroids are believed to encode the infinitesimal symmetries of $S^1$-gerbes. At the same time, transitive Courant algebroids may be viewed as the higher analogue of Atiyah Lie algebroids, and the non-commutative analogue of exact Courant algebroids. In this article, we explore what the "principal bundle" behind transitive Courant algebroids are, and they turn out to be principal 2-bundles of string groups. First, we construct the stack of principal 2-bundles of string groups with connecti…
The metric algebroid proposed by Vaisman (the Vaisman algebroid) governs the gauge symmetry algebra generated by the C-bracket in double field theory (DFT). We show that the Vaisman algebroid is obtained by an analogue of the Drinfel'd double of Lie algebroids. Based on a geometric realization of doubled space-time as a para-Hermitian manifold, we examine exterior algebras and a para-Dolbeault cohomology on DFT and discuss the structure of the Drinfel'd double behind the DFT gauge symmetry. Similar to the Courant algebroid in the generalized geometry, Lagrangian subbundles $(L,\tilde{L})$ in a…
Courant algebroids are a natural generalization of quadratic Lie algebras, appearing in various contexts in mathematical physics. A connection on a Courant algebroid gives an analogue of a covariant derivative compatible with a given fiber-wise metric. Imposing further conditions resembling standard Levi-Civita connections, one obtains a class of connections whose curvature tensor in certain cases gives a new geometrical description of equations of motion of low energy effective action of string theory. Two examples are given. One is the so called symplectic gravity, the second one is an appli…
In this paper we introduce and study some mathematical structures on top of transitive Lie algebroids in order to formulate gauge theories in terms of generalized connections and their curvature: metrics, Hodge star operator and integration along the algebraic part of the transitive Lie algebroid (its kernel). Explicit action functionals are given in terms of global objects and in terms of their local description as well. We investigate applications of these constructions to Atiyah Lie algebroids and to derivations on a vector bundle. The obtained gauge theories are discussed with respect to o…
Lie algebroid Yang-Mills theories are a generalization of Yang-Mills gauge theories, replacing the structural Lie algebra by a Lie algebroid E. In this note we relax the conditions on the fiber metric of E for gauge invariance of the action functional. Coupling to scalar fields requires possibly nonlinear representations of Lie algebroids. In all cases, gauge invariance is seen to lead to a condition of covariant constancy on the respective fiber metric in question with respect to an appropriate Lie algebroid connection. The presentation is kept in part explicit so as to be accessible also to …
Chern-Simons gauge theories in 3 dimensions and the Poisson Sigma Model (PSM) in 2 dimensions are examples of the same theory, if their field equations are interpreted as morphisms of Lie algebroids and their symmetries (on-shell) as homotopies of such morphisms. We point out that the (off-shell) gauge symmetries of the PSM in the literature are not globally well-defined for non-parallelizable Poisson manifolds and propose a covariant definition of them as left action of some finite-dimensional Lie algebroid. Our approach allows to avoid complications arising in the infinite dimensional super-…
The Lie algebroids are generalization of the Lie algebras. They arise, in particular, as a mathematical tool in investigations of dynamical systems with the first class constraints. Here we consider canonical symmetries of Hamiltonian systems generated by a special class of Lie algebroids. The ``coordinate part'' of the Hamiltonian phase space is the Poisson manifold $M$ and the Lie algebroid brackets are defined by means of the Poisson bivector. The Lie algebroid action defined on $M$ can be lifted to the phase space. The main observation is that the classical BRST operator has the same form …
The metric-affine and generalized geometries, respectively, are arguably the appropriate mathematical frameworks for Einstein's theory of gravity and the low-energy effective massless oriented closed bosonic string field theory. In fact, mathematical structures in a metric-affine geometry are written on the tangent bundle, which is itself a Lie algebroid; whereas those in generalized geometries introduced as the basis of double field theories, are written on Courant algebroids. The Lie, Courant and the higher Courant algebroids used in exceptional field theories, are all special cases of pre-L…
The construction of gauge theories beyond the realm of Lie groups and algebras leads one to consider Lie groupoids and algebroids equipped with additional geometrical structures which, for gauge invariance of the construction, need to satisfy particular compatibility conditions. This paper analyzes these compatibilities from a mathematical perspective. In particular, we show that the compatibility of a connection with a Lie algebroid that one finds is the Cartan condition, introduced previously by A. Blaom. For the metric on the base M of a Lie algebroid equipped with any connection, we show t…
Starting with minimal requirements from the physical experience with higher gauge theories, i.e. gauge theories for a tower of differential forms of different form degrees, we discover that all the structural identities governing such theories can be concisely recombined into a so-called Q-structure or, equivalently, a Lie infinity algebroid. This has many technical and conceptual advantages: Complicated higher bundles become just bundles in the category of Q-manifolds in this approach (the many structural identities being encoded in the one operator Q squaring to zero), gauge transformations …
The Poisson--Weil sigma model, worked out by us recently, stems from gauging a Hamiltonian Lie group symmetry of the target space of the Poisson sigma model. Upon gauge fixing of the BV master action, it yields interesting topological field theories such as the 2--dimensional Donaldson-Witten topological gauge theory and the gauged A topological sigma model. In this paper, generalizing the above construction, we construct the Lie algebroid Poisson sigma model. This is yielded by gauging a Hamiltonian Lie groupoid symmetry of the Poisson sigma model target space. We use the BV quantization appr…
In this paper, first we introduce the notion of a $\VB$-Lie $2$-algebroid, which can be viewed as the categorification of a $\VB$-Lie algebroid. The tangent prolongation of a Lie $2$-algebroid is a $\VB$-Lie $2$-algebroid naturally. We show that after choosing a splitting, there is a one-to-one correspondence between $\VB$-Lie $2$-algebroids and flat superconnections of a Lie 2-algebroid on a 3-term complex of vector bundles. Then we introduce the notion of a $\VB$-$\LWX$ 2-algebroid, which can be viewed as the categorification of a $\VB$-Courant algebroid. We show that there is a one-to-one c…
String theory still remains one of the promising candidates for a unification of the theory of gravity and quantum field theory. One of its essential parts is relativistic description of moving multi-dimensional objects called membranes (or p-branes) in a curved spacetime. On the classical field theory level, they are described by an action functional extremalising the volume of a manifold swept by a propagating membrane. This and related field theories are collectively called membrane sigma models. Differential geometry is an important mathematical tool in the study of string theory. It turns…
We study the semidirect product of a Lie algebra with a representation up to homotopy and provide various examples coming from Courant algebroids, string Lie 2-algebras, and omni-Lie algebroids. In the end, we study the semidirect product of a Lie group with a representation up to homotopy and use it to give an integration of a certain string Lie 2-algebra.
We show that in the context of two-dimensional sigma models minimal coupling of an ordinary rigid symmetry Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$ leads naturally to the appearance of the "generalized tangent bundle" $\mathbb{T}M \equiv TM \oplus T^*M$ by means of composite fields. Gauge transformations of the composite fields follow the Courant bracket, closing upon the choice of a Dirac structure $D \subset \mathbb{T}M$ (or, more generally, the choide of a "small Dirac-Rinehart sheaf" $\cal{D}$), in which the fields as well as the symmetry parameters are to take values. In these new variables, the gauge …
We begin by presenting a symmetric version of the circle equivariant T-duality result in a joint work of the second author with Siye Wu, thereby generalising the results there. We then initiate the study of twisted equivariant Courant algebroids and equivariant generalised geometry and apply it to our context. As before, T-duality exchanges type II A and type II B string theories. In our theory, both spacetime and the T-dual spacetime can be singular spaces when the fixed point set is non-empty; the singularities correspond to Kaluza-Klein monopoles. We propose that the Ramond-Ramond charges o…
This is the second in a series of papers discussing in the framework of gerbe theory canonical and geometric aspects of the 2d nonlinear sigma model in the presence of conformal defects in the worldsheet. Employing the formal tools worked out in the first paper of the series, 1101.1126 [hep-th], a thorough analysis of rigid symmetries of the sigma model is carried out with emphasis on algebraic structures on generalised tangent bundles over the target space of the theory and over its state space that give rise to a realisation of the symmetry algebra on states. The analysis leads to a proposal…
