A Worldsheet Description of Flux Compactifications

TL;DR

This paper develops a worldsheet framework for analyzing type II flux compactifications in string theory, enabling systematic calculations of physical observables and linking string field theory with supergravity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel worldsheet approach to flux compactifications using string field theory, providing explicit background solutions and connecting tadpole cancellation with F-term potential minimization.

Findings

Explicit second-order background solutions obtained

Worldsheet description of flux compactifications established

Connection between string field theory and supergravity demonstrated

Abstract

We demonstrate how recent developments in string field theory provide a framework to systematically study type II flux compactifications with non-trivial Ramond-Ramond profiles. We present an explicit example where physical observables can be computed order by order in a small parameter which can be effectively viewed as string coupling constant. We obtain the corresponding background solution of the string field equations of motions up to the second order in the expansion. Along the way, we show how the tadpole cancellations of the string field equations lead to the minimization of the F-term potential of the low energy supergravity description. String field action expanded around the obtained background solution furnishes a worldsheet description of the flux compactifications.