No Arabic abstract
We study some special features of $F_{24}$, the holomorphic $c=12$ superconformal field theory (SCFT) given by 24 chiral free fermions. We construct eight different Lie superalgebras of physical states of a chiral superstring compactified on $F_{24}$, and we prove that they all have the structure of Borcherds-Kac-Moody superalgebras. This produces a family of new examples of such superalgebras. The models depend on the choice of an $mathcal{N}=1$ supercurrent on $F_{24}$, with the admissible choices labeled by the semisimple Lie algebras of dimension 24. We also discuss how $F_{24}$, with any such choice of supercurrent, can be obtained via orbifolding from another distinguished $c=12$ holomorphic SCFT, the $mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric version of the chiral CFT based on the $E_8$ lattice.
We construct a Borcherds Kac-Moody (BKM) superalgebra on which the Conway group Co$_0$ acts faithfully. We show that the BKM algebra is generated by the BRST-closed states in a chiral superstring theory. We use this construction to produce denominator identities for the chiral partition functions of the Conway module $V^{s atural}$, a supersymmetric $c=12$ chiral conformal field theory whose (twisted) partition functions enjoy moonshine properties and which has automorphism group isomorphic to Co$_0$. In particular, these functions satisfy a genus zero property analogous to that of monstrous moonshine. Finally, we suggest how one may promote the denominators to spacetime BPS indices in type II string theory, which might thus furnish a physical explanation of the genus zero property of Conway moonshine.
We discuss a set of heterotic and type II string theory compactifications to 1+1 dimensions that are characterized by factorized internal worldsheet CFTs of the form $V_1otimes bar V_2$, where $V_1, V_2$ are self-dual (super) vertex operator algebras. In the cases with spacetime supersymmetry, we show that the BPS states form a module for a Borcherds-Kac-Moody (BKM) (super)algebra, and we prove that for each model the BKM (super)algebra is a symmetry of genus zero BPS string amplitudes. We compute the supersymmetric indices of these models using both Hamiltonian and path integral formalisms. The path integrals are manifestly automorphic forms closely related to the Borcherds-Weyl-Kac denominator. Along the way, we comment on various subtleties inherent to these low-dimensional string compactifications.
We show that the four-dimensional Chern-Simons theory studied by Costello, Witten and Yamazaki, is, with Nahm pole-type boundary conditions, dual to a boundary theory that is a three-dimensional analogue of Toda theory with a novel 3d W-algebra symmetry. By embedding four-dimensional Chern-Simons theory in a partial twist of the five-dimensional maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on a manifold with corners, we argue that this three-dimensional Toda theory is dual to a two-dimensional topological sigma model with A-branes on the moduli space of solutions to the Bogomolny equations. This furnishes a novel 3d-2d correspondence, which, among other mathematical implications, also reveals that modules of the 3d W-algebra are modules for the quantized algebra of certain holomorphic functions on the Bogomolny moduli space.
To celebrate Roman Jackiws 80th birthday, herewith some comments on gravity and gauge theory models in D=3, the chief focus of many of our joint efforts.
We prove a non-existence theorem for smooth AdS5 solutions with connected, compact without boundary internal space that preserve strictly 24 supersymmetries. In particular, we show that D=11 supergravity does not admit such solutions, and that all such solutions of IIB supergravity are locally isometric to the AdS_5 * S^5 maximally supersymmetric background. Furthermore, we prove that (massive) IIA supergravity also does not admit such solutions, provided that the homogeneity conjecture for massive IIA supergravity is valid. In the context of AdS/CFT these results imply that if strictly N=3 superconformal theories in 4-dimensions exist, their gravitational dual backgrounds are either singular or their internal spaces are not compact.