Towards a Field Theory of F-theory

TL;DR

This paper proposes a twelve-dimensional bosonic field theory that unifies and extends aspects of M-theory and type IIB string theory, providing a new framework for understanding BPS solitons and their higher-dimensional origins.

Contribution

It introduces a novel twelve-dimensional field theory that can be truncated to recover eleven-dimensional supergravity and ten-dimensional type IIB theory, including all BPS p-brane solitons.

Findings

The theory admits consistent truncations to known supergravity theories.

It explains the origin of type IIB strings as wrapped membranes in twelve dimensions.

The off-diagonal kinetic fields influence solution oxidation without affecting lower-dimensional dynamics.

Abstract

We make a proposal for a bosonic field theory in twelve dimensions that admits the bosonic sector of eleven-dimensional supergravity as a consistent truncation. It can also be consistently truncated to a ten-dimensional Lagrangian that contains all the BPS p-brane solitons of the type IIB theory. The mechanism allowing the consistent truncation in the latter case is unusual, in that additional fields with an off-diagonal kinetic term are non-vanishing and yet do not contribute to the dynamics of the ten-dimensional theory. They do, however, influence the oxidation of solutions back to twelve dimensions. We present a discussion of the oxidations of all the basic BPS solitons of M-theory and the type IIB string to D=12. In particular, the NS-NS and R-R strings of the type IIB theory arise as the wrappings of membranes in D=12 around one or other circle of the compactifying 2-torus.