Bosonic M-Theory From a Kac-Moody Algebra Perspective

Abstract

We study the existence of a bosonic m-theory extension of the 10D and 26D closed bosonic string in terms of Kac-Moody algebras. We argue that K11 and K27 are symmetries which protect the coefficients of the closed bosonic string in 10 and 26 dimensions. Therefore the Susskind-Horowitz bosonic m-theory obtained by compactification on S1/Z2, which does not produce the correct coefficients, must be replaced by something that preserves K11 and K27. We argue that in 11D, a non-trivial bosonic m-theory should be considered as (the bosonic sector of) m-theory, and in 27D that no obvious bosonic m-theory exists.