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High Energy Physics - Theory, hep-th
Abstract:
Extending previous work on generalised geometry, we explicitly construct an
E7-valued vielbein in eleven dimensions that encompasses the scalar bosonic
degrees of freedom of D=11 supergravity, by identifying new "generalised
vielbeine" in eleven dimensions associated with the dual 6-form potential and
the dual graviton. By maintaining full on-shell equivalence with the original
theory at every step, our construction altogether avoids the constraints
usually encountered in other approaches to generalised geometry and, as a side
product, also furnishes the non-linear ansatz for the dual (magnetic) 7-form
flux for any non-trivial compactification of D=11 supergravity, complementing
the known non-linear ansaetze for the metric and the 4-form flux. A preliminary
analysis of the generalised vielbein postulate for the new vielbein components
reveals tantalising hints of new structures beyond D=11 supergravity and
ordinary space-time covariance, and also points to the possible D=11 origins of
the embedding tensor. We discuss the extension of these results to E8.