U-duality in quantum M2-branes and gauged supergravities

TL;DR

This paper explores the relationship between quantum M2-branes with fluxes and monodromy, and nine-dimensional gauged supergravities, revealing how U-duality symmetries classify different brane configurations and their corresponding supergravity gaugings.

Contribution

It provides a detailed classification of M2-brane bundles with monodromy and explicitly relates these classes to the mass parameters of 9d type IIB gauged supergravities, highlighting the role of U-duality groups.

Findings

Classification of M2-brane bundles via cohomology and monodromy.

Explicit relation between M2-brane classes and supergravity gaugings.

Identification of U-duality subgroups for different brane configurations.

Abstract

In this paper, we study the relation of the M2-brane with fluxes and monodromy in $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$, which has a quantum discrete supersymmetric spectrum with finite multiplicity, and type IIB gauged supergravities in nine dimensions. $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ is the group of isotopy classes of the area preserving diffeomorphisms. The global description of these M2-branes we are considering is formulated on twisted torus bundles, and they are classified in terms of $H^2(\Sigma,\mathcal{Z}_{\mathcal{\rho}})$, or equivalently, by their coinvariants for a given monodromy subgroup. We find the 'gauge' symmetries between equivalent M2-branes, on torus bundles with monodromy, that leads to $\mathbb{R}$, $SO(2)$ or $SO(1,1)$, the symmetry groups of type IIB gauged supergravities in 9d. We obtain an explicit relation between the equivalent classes of M2-brane bundles and the mass parameters that classify the gaugings of type IIB supergravities in 9d. We also find that the symmetries, between inequivalent M2-branes on twisted torus bundles for a given monodromy, are related with $\mathbb{Z}$, $\mathcal{Z}_3$, $\mathcal{Z}_5$, $\mathcal{Z}_9$ or $\mathcal{Z}_{2n-7}$ for $n\geq 5$, the U-duality symmetry group, a subgroup of $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$. In distinction, in the case without monodromy, related to type II maximal supergravity at low energies, its U-duality group corresponds to the full $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$.