Kac-Moody algebras in perturbative string theory

Many recent researches indicate that several gravitational D-dimensional theories suitably coupled to some matter fields (including in particular pure gravity in D dimensions, the low energy effective actions of the bosonic string and the bosonic sector of M-theory) would be characterized by infinite dimensional Kac-Moody algebras G^{++} and G^{+++}. The possible existence of these extended symmetries motivates a development of a new description of gravitational theories base...

In this contribution we address the following question: Is there a group with a fermionic presentation which unifies all the physical gravitini and dilatini of the maximal supergravity theories in D=10 and D=11 (without introducing new degrees of freedom)? The affirmative answer relies on a new mathematical object derived from the theory of Kac--Moody algebras, notably E10. It can also be shown that in this way not only the spectrum but also dynamical aspects of all supergrav...

In the strong coupling limit type IIA superstring theory develops an eleventh dimension that is not apparent in perturbation theory. This suggests the existence of a consistent 11d quantum theory, called M theory, which is approximated by 11d supergravity at low energies. In this review we describe some of the evidence for this picture and some of its implications.

We define a level for a large class of Lorentzian Kac-Moody algebras. Using this we find the representation content of very extended $A_{D-3}$ and $E_8$ (i.e. $E_{11}$) at low levels in terms of $A_{D-1}$ and $A_{10}$ representations respectively. The results are consistent with the conjectured very extended $A_8$ and $E_{11}$ symmetries of gravity and maximal supergravity theories given respectively in hep-th/0104081 and hep-th/0107209. We explain how these results provided ...

We determine the gauge symmetries of all p-forms in maximal three-dimensional gauged supergravity by requiring invariance of the Lagrangian. It is shown that in a particular ungauged limit these symmetries are in precise correspondence to those predicted by the very-extended Kac-Moody algebra E11. We demonstrate that whereas in the ungauged limit the bosonic gauge algebra closes off-shell, the closure is only on-shell in the full gauged theory. This underlines the importance ...

I suggest the possibility of a new string in ten dimensions. Evidence for this string is presented both from orientifold physics and from K-theory, along with a mystery concerning the M-theory description. Motivated by this possibility, some novel aspects of decoupling limits in heterotic/type I theories are described; specifically, the decoupled theory on type I $D$-strings is argued to be three-dimensional rather than two-dimensional. These decoupled theories provide the ma...

Kac--Moody groups $G$ over $\mathbb{R}$ have been conjectured to occur as symmetry groups of supergravity theories dimensionally reduced to dimensions less than 3, and their integral forms $G(\mathbb{Z})$ conjecturally encode quantized symmetries. In this review paper, we briefly introduce the conjectural symmetries of Kac--Moody groups in supergravity as well as the known evidence for these conjectures. We describe constructions of Kac--Moody groups over $\R$ and $\Z$ using ...

We employ an algebraic approach for unifying perturbative and non-perturbative superstring states on an equal footing, in the form of U-duality multiplets, at all excited string levels. In compactified type-IIA supertring theory we present evidence that the multiplet is labelled by two spaces, ``index'' space and ``base'' space, on which U acts without mixing them. Both spaces are non-perturbative extensions of similar spaces that label perturbative T-duality multiplets. Base...

We show that IIA supergravity can be extended with two independent 10-form potentials. These give rise to a single BPS IIA 9-brane. We investigate the bosonic gauge algebra of both IIA and IIB supergravity in the presence of 10-form potentials and point out an intriguing relation with the symmetry algebra $E_{11}$, which has been conjectured to be the underlying symmetry of string theory/M-theory.

We consider Eisenstein series appearing as coefficients of curvature corrections in the low-energy expansion of type II string theory four-graviton scattering amplitudes. We define these Eisenstein series over all groups in the E_n series of string duality groups, and in particular for the infinite-dimensional Kac-Moody groups E9, E10 and E11. We show that, remarkably, the so-called constant term of Kac-Moody-Eisenstein series contains only a finite number of terms for partic...