Abstract
Worldsheet string theory is solvable for a variety of backgrounds involving Neveu-Schwarz fivebranes, in terms of gauged nonlinear sigma models on group manifolds. We compute the worldsheet torus partition function of these models, and propose gauging of null isometries as a unifying principle and conceptual framework for this large family of string backgrounds. In the process, we explain how partition functions of asymmetrically gauged Wess-Zumino-Witten models can be computed from the path integral, and organize and systematize various results scattered throughout the literature.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Davide Bufalini, Soumangsu Chakraborty, Lorenz Eberhardt, Ji Hoon Lee, Nicolas Kovensky, Stefano Massai and David Turton for discussions. The work of EJM is supported in part by DOE grant DE-SC0009924. AD acknowledges support from the Mafalda & Reinhard Oehme Fellowship.
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Dei, A., Martinec, E.J. NS5-brane backgrounds and coset CFT partition functions. J. High Energ. Phys. 2024, 147 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2024)147
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2024)147