Brane fusion in the bosonic string and the emergence of fermionic strings

Englert, F.; Houart, L.; Taormina, A.

Abstract

We review the emergence of the ten-dimensional fermionic closed string theories from subspaces of the Hilbert space of the 26-dimensional bosonic closed string theory compactified on an E8 × SO(16) lattice. They arise from a consistent truncation procedure which generates space-time fermions out of bosons. This procedure is extended to open string sectors. We prove that truncation of the unique tadpole-free SO(213) bosonic string theory compactified on the above lattice determines the anomaly free Chan-Paton group of the type-I theory and the consistent Chan-Paton groups of type-O theories. It also predicts the tension of space-filling D-branes in these fermionic theories. The derivation of these fermionic string properties from bosonic considerations alone points towards a dynamical origin of the truncation process. Space-time fermions and supersymmetries would then arise from bosonic degrees of freedom and no fermionic degrees of freedom would be needed in a fundamental theory of quantum gravity.

Citation

Englert, F., Houart, L., & Taormina, A. (2001). Brane fusion in the bosonic string and the emergence of fermionic strings. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2001(08), https://doi.org/10.1088/1126-6708/2001/08/013

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Aug 1, 2001
• Deposit Date: Apr 23, 2007
• Journal: Journal of High Energy Physics
• Print ISSN: 1126-6708
• Electronic ISSN: 1029-8479
• Publisher: Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2001
• Issue: 08
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1126-6708/2001/08/013
• Keywords: Bosonic strings, Superstrings, Heterotic strings, D-branes.