Abstract
Supergravity provides the effective field theories for string compactifications. The deformation of the maximal supergravities by non-abelian gauge interactions is only possible for a restricted class of charges. Generically these ‘gaugings’ involve a hierarchy of p-form fields which belong to specific representations of the duality group. The group-theoretical structure of this p-form hierarchy exhibits many interesting features. In the case of maximal supergravity the class of allowed deformations has intriguing connections with M/string theory.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Hermann Nicolai and H. Samtleben for discussions. The work of M.v.Z. is part of the research program of the ‘Stichting voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie (FOM)’, which is financially supported by the ‘Nederlandse Organisatie voorWetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO)’. This work is also supported by NWO grant 047017015.
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This study is based on a talk presented at Quantum gravity: challenges and perspectives, Heraeus Seminar, Bad Honnef, 14–16 April 2008.
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Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
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de Wit, B., van Zalk, M. Supergravity and M-theory. Gen Relativ Gravit 41, 757–784 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-008-0751-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-008-0751-0