(Exceptional) Generalised Geometry

Anfiteatro 0.03, Departamento de Matemática Pura, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto.
Tuesday, 19 May, 2009 - 13:30

We review recently introduced geometric tools used to characterize supersymmetric flux backgrounds, with special emphasis on Generalised Complex Geometry as developed by Hitchin. We then proceed to describe Exceptional Generalised Geometry, an extension of the latter formalism based on the exceptional Lie group E7(7) which achieves a full geometrization of all fluxes, including Ramond-Ramond fluxes.

First we present the formal structure of the theory: the Exceptional Generalized Tangent bundle endowed with a non-trivial twisted topology and a corresponding gerbe structure, an Exceptional Courant bracket and an Exceptional Generalized Metric in which the bosonic degrees of freedom of 11 D supergravity (the traditional metric and the fluxes) enter on equal footing. We then show how this formalism may be used to rewrite part of 11 D SUGRA in the language of N=1 D=4 supersymmetry and express the
corresponding effective superpotential in a manifestly E7(7)invariant form.

Speaker: 

Paulo Pires Pacheco (CAMGSD-IST)