On the Riemann tensor in double field theory

Double field theory provides T-duality covariant generalized tensors that are natural extensions of the scalar and Ricci curvatures of Riemannian geometry. We search for a similar extension of the Riemann curvature tensor by developing a geometry based on the generalized metric and the dilaton. We f...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hohm, Olaf, Zwiebach, Barton
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Theoretical Physics
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Springer-Verlag 2013
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/76760
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6504-3210
Description
Summary:Double field theory provides T-duality covariant generalized tensors that are natural extensions of the scalar and Ricci curvatures of Riemannian geometry. We search for a similar extension of the Riemann curvature tensor by developing a geometry based on the generalized metric and the dilaton. We find a duality covariant Riemann tensor whose contractions give the Ricci and scalar curvatures, but that is not fully determined in terms of the physical fields. This suggests that α′ corrections to the effective action require α′ corrections to T-duality transformations and/or generalized diffeomorphisms. Further evidence to this effect is found by an additional computation that shows that there is no T-duality invariant four-derivative object built from the generalized metric and the dilaton that reduces to the square of the Riemann tensor.