A second look at gauged supergravities from fluxes in M-theory

TL;DR

This paper explores advanced M-theory flux compactifications including KK6 monopoles, revealing new moduli stabilization mechanisms and providing an M-theory perspective on non-geometric flux vacua beyond traditional type IIA models.

Contribution

It introduces a novel class of M-theory flux vacua with KK6 monopoles that stabilize all moduli and relate to non-geometric fluxes, extending the landscape of flux compactifications.

Findings

KKO6-planes enable full moduli stabilization.

New M-theory flux vacua are not obtainable from standard type IIA reductions.

These vacua relate to non-geometric fluxes in four dimensions.

Abstract

We investigate reductions of M-theory beyond twisted tori by allowing the presence of KK6 monopoles (KKO6-planes) compatible with N=4 supersymmetry in four dimensions. The presence of KKO6-planes proves crucial to achieve full moduli stabilisation as they generate new universal moduli powers in the scalar potential. The resulting gauged supergravities turn out to be compatible with a weak G2 holonomy at N=1 as well as at some non-supersymmetric AdS4 vacua. The M-theory flux vacua we present here cannot be obtained from ordinary type IIA orientifold reductions including background fluxes, D6-branes (O6-planes) and/or KK5 (KKO5) sources. However, from a four-dimensional point of view, they still admit a description in terms of so-called non-geometric fluxes. In this sense we provide the M-theory interpretation for such non-geometric type IIA flux vacua.