Anomaly constraints for heterotic strings and supergravity in six dimensions

TL;DR

This paper investigates anomaly cancellation constraints in six-dimensional supergravity theories, revealing new restrictions on gauge charges and identifying anomaly-free models, thus advancing understanding of consistent low-dimensional string theories.

Contribution

It uncovers novel global anomaly constraints in 6D supergravity, including restrictions on abelian charges and identification of anomaly-free heterotic models, extending previous results to lower dimensions.

Findings

Excluded arbitrarily large abelian charges in certain theories

Identified anomaly-free Gepner orientifold with no tensor multiplets

Extended anomaly analysis from 10D to 6D heterotic models

Abstract

The landscape of six-dimensional supergravities is dramatically constrained by the cancellation of gauge and gravitational anomalies, but the full extent of its implications has not been uncovered. We explore the cancellation of global anomalies of the Dai-Freed type in this setting with abelian and simply laced gauge groups, finding novel constraints. In particular, we exclude arbitrarily large abelian charges in an infinite family of theories for certain types of quadratic refinements, including a specific one defined in the literature. We also show that the Gepner orientifold with no tensor multiplets is anomaly-free for a different choice, as well as a number of heterotic models with and without spacetime supersymmetry in six dimensions. The latter analysis extends previous results in ten dimensions to some lower-dimensional settings in the heterotic landscape.