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Electric/magnetic deformations of S 3 and AdS 3 , and geometric cosets
Author(s) -
Israël D.,
Kounnas C.,
Orlando D.,
Marios Petropoulos P.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
fortschritte der physik
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.469
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1521-3978
pISSN - 0015-8208
DOI - 10.1002/prop.200410190
Subject(s) - conformal map , coset , physics , string (physics) , deformation (meteorology) , mathematical physics , sigma model , conformal symmetry , theoretical physics , quantum electrodynamics , geometry , quantum mechanics , combinatorics , mathematics , nonlinear system , meteorology
We analyze asymmetric marginal deformations of SU (2) k and SL (2,ℝ) k WZW models. These appear in heterotic string backgrounds with non‐vanishing Neveu–Schwarz three‐forms plus electric or magnetic fields, depending on whether the deformation is elliptic, hyperbolic or parabolic. Asymmetric deformations create new families of exact string vacua. The geometries which are generated in this way, deformed S 3 or AdS 3 , include in particular geometric cosets such as S 2 , AdS 2 or H 2 . Hence, the latter are consistent, exact conformal sigma models, with electric or magnetic backgrounds. We discuss various geometric and symmetry properties of the deformations at hand as well as their spectra and partition functions, with special attention to the supersymmetric AdS 2 × S 2 background. We also comment on potential holographic applications.