Type-II Superstrings and New Spacetime Superalgebras

TL;DR

This paper develops a geometric framework for type-II superstring theories using superalgebras derived from M-theory and T-duality, introducing modifications for D-string descriptions and unifying superalgebras in higher dimensions.

Contribution

It introduces a geometric formulation of type-IIA and -IIB superstrings with second-order Wess-Zumino terms, and modifies superalgebras to incorporate D-string charges and unify them in (10+1) dimensions.

Findings

Superalgebras derived from M-theory and T-duality describe superstring theories.

A modification of the IIB superalgebra accounts for D-string gauge fields.

Unification of superalgebras in a (10+1)-dimensional N=2 framework.

Abstract

We present a geometric formulation of type-IIA and -IIB superstring theories in which the Wess-Zumino term is second order in the supersymmetric currents. The currents are constructed using supergroup manifolds corresponding to superalgebras: the IIA superalgebra derived from M-algebra and the IIB superalgebra obtained by a T-duality transformation of the IIA superalgebra. We find that a slight modification of the IIB superalgebra is needed to describe D-string theories, in which the U(1) gauge field on the worldsheet is explicitly constructed in terms of D-string charges. A unification of the superalgebras in a (10+1)-dimensional N=2 superalgebra is discussed too.