The data on the boundary at order $$\alpha '$$

Abstract

AbstractThe least action principle indicates that for the open spacetime manifolds, there are data on the boundary. Recently, it has been proposed that the data for the effective actions at order $$\alpha '$$ α ′ are the values of the massless fields and their first derivatives. These data should be respected by the T-duality transformations at order $$\alpha '$$ α ′ . Moreover, the T-duality transformations should not change the unit vector to the boundary which in turns implies that the base space metric should be also invariant. Assuming such restricted T-duality transformations, we show that the transformation of the circular reduction of the parity-odd part of the effective action of the heterotic string theory at order $$\alpha '$$ α ′ under the Buscher rules is cancelled by some total derivative terms and by some restricted T-duality transformations at order $$\alpha '$$ α ′ . Using the Stokes’ theorem, we then show that the boundary terms in the base space corresponding to the total derivative terms are exactly cancelled by transformation of the circular reduction of the Gibbons–Hawking boundary term under the above restricted T-duality transformations. These calculations confirm the above proposal for the data on the boundary for the effective actions at order $$\alpha '$$ α ′ .