Old Dualities and New Anomalies

Abstract

We revisit the question whether the worldsheet theory of a string admits a global O(d,d) symmetry. We consider the truncation of the target space theory in which fields are independent of d coordinates, which is O(d,d,R) invariant. The worldsheet theory is not O(d,d,R) invariant, unless it is truncated by setting winding and center-of-mass momenta to zero. We prove consistency of this truncation and give a manifestly O(d,d,R) invariant action, generalizing a formulation due to Tseytlin by including all external and internal target space fields. It is shown that, due to chiral bosons, this symmetry is anomalous. The anomaly is cancelled by a Green-Schwarz mechanism that utilizes the external B-field.