A new version of double field theory (DFT) is derived for the exactly solvable background of an in general left-right asymmetric WZW model in the large level limit. This generalizes the original DFT that was derived via expanding closed string field theory on a torus up to cubic order. The action and gauge transformations are derived for fluctuations around the generalized group manifold background up to cubic order, revealing the appearance of a generalized Lie derivative and a corresponding C-bracket upon invoking a new version of the strong constraint. In all these quantities a background dependent covariant derivative appears reducing to the partial derivative for a toroidal background. This approach sheds some new light on the conceptual status of DFT, its background (in-)dependence and the up-lift of non-geometric Scherk-Schwarz reductions.

The worldsheet theories that describe Poisson-Lie T-dualisable σ-models on group manifolds as well as integrable η, λ and β-deformations provide examples of E-models.Here we show how such E-models can be given an elegant target space description within Double Field Theory by specifying explicitly generalised frame fields forming an algebra under the generalised Lie derivative. With this framework we can extract simple criteria for the R/R fields and the dilaton that extend the E-model conditions to type II backgrounds. In particular this gives conditions for a type II background to be Poisson-Lie T-dualisable. Our approach gives rise to algebraic field equations for Poisson-Lie symmetric spacetimes and provides an effective tool for their study.

In this paper we discuss the construction of non-geometric Q-and R-branes as sources of non-geometric Q-and R-fluxes in string compactifications. The non-geometric Q-branes, being obtained via T-duality from the NS 5-brane or respectively from the KK-monopole, are still local solutions of the standard NS action, where however the background fields G and B possess non-geometric global monodromy properties. We show that using double field theory and redefined background fieldsG and β as well as their corresponding effective action, the Q-branes are locally and globally well behaved solutions. Furthermore the R-brane solution can be at least formally constructed using dual coordinates. We derive the associated nongeometric Q-and R-fluxes and discuss that closed strings moving in the space transversal to the world-volumes of the non-geometric branes see a non-commutative or a non-associative geometry.In the second part of the paper we construct intersecting Q-and R-brane configurations as completely supersymmetric solutions of type IIA/B supergravity with certain SU (3) × SU (3) group structures. In the near horizon limit the intersecting brane configurations lead to type II backgrounds of the form AdS 4 × M 6 , where the six-dimensional compact space M 6 is a torus fibration with various non-geometric Q-and R-fluxes in the compact directions. It exhibits an interesting non-commutative and non-associate geometric structure. Furthermore we also determine some of the effective four-dimensional superpotentials originating from the non-geometric fluxes.

Compactifications of the physical superstring to two dimensions provide a general template for realizing 2D conformal field theories coupled to worldsheet gravity, i.e. non-critical string theories. Motivated by this observation, in this paper we determine the quasi-topological 8D theory which governs the vacua of 2D N = (0, 2) gauged linear sigma models (GLSMs) obtained from compactifications of type I and heterotic strings on a Calabi-Yau fourfold. We also determine the quasi-topological 6D theory governing the 2D vacua of intersecting 7-branes in compactifications of F-theory on an elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau fivefold, where matter fields and interaction terms localize on lowerdimensional subspaces, i.e. defect operators. To cancel anomalies / cancel tadpoles, these GLSMs must couple to additional chiral sectors, which in some cases do not admit a known description in terms of a UV GLSM. Additionally, we find that constructing an anomaly free spectrum can sometimes break supersymmetry due to spacetime filling anti-branes. We also study various canonical examples such as the standard embedding of heterotic strings on a Calabi-Yau fourfold and F-theoretic "rigid clusters" with no local deformation moduli of the elliptic fibration.

We rewrite the recently derived cubic action of Double Field Theory on group manifolds [1] in terms of a generalized metric and extrapolate it to all orders in the fields. For the resulting action, we derive the field equations and state them in terms of a generalized curvature scalar and a generalized Ricci tensor. Compared to the generalized metric formulation of DFT derived from tori, all these quantities receive additional contributions related to the non-trivial background. It is shown that the action is invariant under its generalized diffeomorphisms and 2D-diffeomorphisms. Imposing additional constraints relating the background and fluctuations around it, the precise relation between the proposed generalized metric formulation of DFT WZW and of original DFT from tori is clarified. Furthermore, we show how to relate DFT WZW of the WZW background with the flux formulation of original DFT.

Non-geometric string backgrounds were proposed to be related to a nonassociative deformation of the space-time geometry. In the flux formulation of double field theory (DFT), the structure of mathematically possible non-associative deformations is analyzed in detail. It is argued that on-shell there should not be any violation of associativity in the effective DFT action. For imposing either the strong or the weaker closure constraint we discuss two possible non-associative deformations of DFT featuring two different ways how on-shell associativity can still be kept.

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We study the problem of obtaining de Sitter and inflationary vacua from dimensional reduction of double field theory (DFT) on nongeometric string backgrounds. In this context, we consider a new class of effective potentials that admit Minkowski and de Sitter minima. We then construct a simple model of chaotic inflation arising from T-fold backgrounds and we discuss the possibility of trans-Planckian field range from nongeometric monodromies as well as the conditions required to get slow roll.