The E8 moduli 3-stack of the C-field in M-theory

TL;DR

This paper develops a mathematical framework using twisted nonabelian differential cohomology to describe the moduli 3-stack of the C-field in M-theory, connecting it to known structures and boundary conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a natural characterization of the full moduli 3-stack of the C-field, gravitational, and E8 fields, and relates it to existing structures like Wu and anomaly-free heterotic configurations.

Findings

Reproduces differential integral Wu structures from the moduli 3-stack.

Characterizes boundary C-field configurations as equivalent to anomaly-free heterotic supergravity.

Encodes Horava-Witten boundary conditions at the level of moduli 3-stacks.

Abstract

The higher gauge field in 11-dimensional supergravity -- the C-field -- is constrained by quantum effects to be a cocycle in some twisted version of differential cohomology. We argue that it should indeed be a cocycle in a certain twisted nonabelian differential cohomology. We give a simple and natural characterization of the full smooth moduli 3-stack of configurations of the C-field, the gravitational field/background, and the (auxiliary) E8-field. We show that the truncation of this moduli 3-stack to a bare 1-groupoid of field configurations reproduces the differential integral Wu structures that Hopkins-Singer had shown to formalize Witten's argument on the nature of the C-field. We give a similarly simple and natural characterization of the moduli 2-stack of boundary C-field configurations and show that it is equivalent to the moduli 2-stack of anomaly free heterotic supergravity field configurations. Finally we show how to naturally encode the Horava-Witten boundary condition on the level of moduli 3-stacks, and refine it from a condition on 3-forms to a condition on the corresponding full differential cocycles.