Fun with F24

Abstract

Abstract We study some special features of F24, the holomorphic c = 12 superconformal field theory (SCFT) given by 24 chiral free fermions. We construct eight different Lie superalgebras of “physical” states of a chiral superstring compactified on F24, and we prove that they all have the structure of Borcherds-Kac-Moody superalgebras. This produces a family of new examples of such superalgebras. The models depend on the choice of an $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 1 supercurrent on F24, with the admissible choices labeled by the semisimple Lie algebras of dimension 24. We also discuss how F24, with any such choice of supercurrent, can be obtained via orbifolding from another distinguished c = 12 holomorphic SCFT, the $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 1 supersymmetric version of the chiral CFT based on the E8 lattice.