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Elliptic genera and quantum field theory

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Abstract

It is shown that in elliptic cohomology — as recently formulated in the mathematical literature — the supercharge of the supersymmetric nonlinear signa model plays a role similar to the role of the Dirac operator inK-theory. This leads to several insights concerning both elliptic cohomology and string theory. Some of the relevant calculations have been done previously by Schellekens and Warner in a different context.

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Communicated by A. Jaffe

Supported in part by NSF grants PHY 80-19754 and PHY 86-16129

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Witten, E. Elliptic genera and quantum field theory. Commun.Math. Phys. 109, 525–536 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01208956

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01208956

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