Massive IIA String Theory and Matrix Theory Compactification

TL;DR

This paper develops a Matrix Theory framework for Romans' massive Type IIA supergravity, linking it to M-Theory on a twisted torus and providing evidence of correct physical excitation energies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Matrix Theory approach to Massive Type IIA supergravity via compactification on a twisted torus, incorporating space-dependent non-commutativity.

Findings

Super-Yang Mills theory on large N three-branes models Massive IIA supergravity.

Evidence of correct symmetry in excitation energies consistent with Massive Type IIA.

Independent derivation of non-commutativity parameter via T-duality.

Abstract

We propose a Matrix Theory approach to Romans' massive Type IIA supergravity. It is obtained by applying the procedure of Matrix Theory compactifications to Hull's proposal of the Massive Type IIA String Theory as M-Theory on a twisted torus. The resulting Matrix Theory is a super-Yang Mills theory on large N three-branes with a space dependent non-commutativity parameter, which is also independently derived by a T-duality approach. We give evidence showing that the energies of a class of physical excitations of the super-Yang Mills theory show the correct symmetry expected from Massive Type IIA string theory in a lightcone quantization.