Poisson-Lie Duality in the String Effective Action

Abstract

The symmetry properties of the bosonic string effective action under Poisson-Lie duality transformations are investigated. A convenient and simple formulation of these duality transformations is found, that allows the reduction of the string effective action in a Kaluza-Klein framework. It is shown that the action is invariant provided that the two Lie algebras, forming the Drinfeld double, have traceless structure constants. Finally, a functional relation is found between the Weyl anomaly coefficients of the original and dual non-linear sigma models.