Quantization of anomaly coefficients in 6D N=(1,0) supergravity

Abstract

We obtain new constraints on the anomaly coefficients of 6D N= (1 0) supergravity theories using local and global anomaly cancellation conditions. We show how these constraints can be strengthened if we assume that the theory is well-defined on any spin space-time with an arbitrary gauge bundle. We distinguish the constraints depending on the gauge algebra only from those depending on the global structure of the gauge group. Our main constraint states that the coefficients of the anomaly polynomial for the gauge group G should be an element of 2H4(BG; ℤ) ⊗ ΛS where ΛS is the unimodular string charge lattice. We show that the constraints in their strongest form are realized in F-theory compactifications. In the process, we identify the cocharacter lattice, which determines the global structure of the gauge group, within the homology lattice of the compactification manifold.