HIDDEN SYMMETRIES OF TWO DIMENSIONAL STRING EFFECTIVE ACTION

TL;DR

This paper explores the hidden symmetries in the two-dimensional effective action derived from heterotic string theory, revealing an infinite sequence of conserved currents and their algebraic structure.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the generators of these conserved currents form a Kac-Moody algebra, uncovering deep symmetry structures in the reduced string effective action.

Findings

Infinite sequence of conserved nonlocal currents

Generators satisfy Kac-Moody algebra

Symmetry structures in two-dimensional string effective action

Abstract

The ten dimensional heterotic string effective action with graviton, dilaton and antisymmetric tensor fields is dimensionally reduced to two spacetime dimensions. The resulting theory, with some constraints on backgrounds, admits infinite sequence of conserved nonlocal currents. It is shown that generators of the infinitesimal transformations associated with these currents satisfy Kac-Moody algebra.