Conformal Courant Algebroids and Orientifold T-duality

Abstract

We introduce conformal Courant algebroids, a mild generalization of Courant algebroids in which only a conformal structure rather than a bilinear form is assumed. We introduce exact conformal Courant algebroids and show they are classified by pairs $(L,H)$ with $L$ a flat line bundle and $H \in H^3(M,L)$ a degree 3 class with coefficients in $L$. As a special case gerbes for the crossed module $({\rm U}(1) \to \mathbb{Z}_2)$ can be used to twist $TM \oplus T^*M$ into a conformal Courant algebroid. In the exact case there is a twisted cohomology which is 4-periodic if $L^2 = 1$. The structure of Conformal Courant algebroids on circle bundles leads us to construct a T-duality for orientifolds with free involution. This incarnation of T-duality yields an isomorphism of 4-periodic twisted cohomology. We conjecture that the isomorphism extends to an isomorphism in twisted $KR$-theory and give some calculations to support this claim.