Differential K-characters and D-branes

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how K-theory provides a comprehensive framework to describe D-brane world-volumes, charges, and actions in type II superstring theory, unifying and extending previous cohomological approaches.

Contribution

It introduces a K-theoretical approach to characterize D-branes, Wess-Zumino actions, and charges, bridging the gap between cohomology and K-theory in string theory.

Findings

K-theory accurately describes D-brane charges

The framework reproduces cohomological features within K-theory

Provides a unified mathematical language for D-brane physics

Abstract

Starting from the definition of Cheeger-Simons K-character, we show how to describe D-brane world-volumes, the Wess-Zumino action and topological D-brane charges within the K-theoretical framework in type II superstring theory. We stress in particular how each feature of the old cohomological classification can be reproduced using the K-theoretical language.