Nuclear Physics B (Dec 2015)

The M-theory origin of global properties of gauge theories

  • Antonio Amariti,
  • Claudius Klare,
  • Domenico Orlando,
  • Susanne Reffert

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2015.10.011
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 901, no. C
pp. 318 – 337

Abstract

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We show that global properties of gauge groups can be understood as geometric properties in M-theory. Different wrappings of a system of N M5-branes on a torus reduce to four-dimensional theories with AN−1 gauge algebra and different unitary groups. The classical properties of the wrappings determine the global properties of the gauge theories without the need to impose any quantum conditions. We count the inequivalent wrappings as they fall into orbits of the modular group of the torus, which correspond to the S-duality orbits of the gauge theories.