Topological aspects of the NS5-brane

Abstract

In this note we investigate certain topological aspects of the effective action of the NS5-brane in type IIA string theory. To facilitate the study of the corresponding partition function, we define a cohomology class whose vanishing is a necessary condition for this function to be well-defined. This leads to various topological conditions, including a twisted Fivebrane structure as well as secondary cohomology operations arising from a K-theoretic description. We explain how these operations also generate the topological part of the action as well as the phase of the partition function. Part of the discussion also applies to the M5-brane.