Manifest Electromagnetic Duality in Closed Superstring Field Theory

TL;DR

This paper derives a Lorentz-covariant, duality-invariant action for massless Ramond-Ramond fields in closed superstring field theory, demonstrating electromagnetic duality explicitly in a manifest way.

Contribution

It presents a new manifestly Lorentz-covariant and duality-invariant action for Ramond-Ramond fields derived from superstring field theory, extending previous formulations.

Findings

Derived a manifestly Lorentz-covariant action for self-dual five-form fields.

Demonstrated invariance under electromagnetic duality transformation.

Connected superstring theory results to four-dimensional N=2 supergravity.

Abstract

The free action for massless Ramond-Ramond fields is derived from closed superstring field theory using the techniques of Siegel and Zwiebach. For the uncompactified Type IIB superstring, this gives a manifestly Lorentz-covariant action for a self-dual five-form field strength. Upon compactification to four dimensions, the action depends on a U(1) field strength from 4D N=2 supergravity. However, unlike the standard Maxwell action, this action is manifestly invariant under the electromagnetic duality transformation which rotates $F_{mn}$ into $\epsilon_{mnpq} F^{pq}$.