Classification of String Theories via Topological Phases

Open Access

Classification of String Theories via Topological Phases

Justin Kaidi, Julio Parra-Martinez, and Yuji Tachikawa

Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 121601 – Published 25 March 2020

Abstract

We point out that the choice of phases in Gliozzi-Scherk-Olive projections can be accounted for by a choice of fermionic symmetry-protected topological phases on the world sheet of the string. This point of view not only easily explains why there are essentially two type II theories, but also predicts that there are unoriented type 0 theories labeled by $n$ mod 8 and that there is an essentially unique choice of the type I world sheet theory. We also discuss the relationship between this point of view and the $K$ -theoretic classification of D-branes.

Received 25 September 2019
Accepted 20 February 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.121601

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP³.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Strings & branes Symmetry protected topological states Topological phases of matter

Particles & FieldsCondensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Justin Kaidi ¹, Julio Parra-Martinez ¹, and Yuji Tachikawa ²

¹Mani L. Bhaumik Institute for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
²Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI), University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8583, Japan