Non-relativistic limits of bosonic and heterotic Double Field Theory

Abstract

Abstract The known stringy non-relativistic (NR) limit of the universal NS-NS sector of supergravity has a finite Lagrangian due to non-trivial cancellations of divergent parts coming from the metric and the B-field. We demonstrate that in Double Field Theory (DFT) and generalised geometry these cancellations already happen at the level of the generalised metric, which is convergent in the limit c → ∞, implying that the NR limit can be imposed before solving the strong constraint. We present the c-expansion of the generalised metric, which reproduces the Non-Riemannian formulation of DFT at the (finite) leading order, and the c-expansion of the generalised frame, which contains divergences. We also extend this approach to the non-Abelian gauge field of Heterotic DFT assuming a convergent expansion for the O(D, D + n) generalised metric. From this proposal, we derive a novel c-expansion for the bosonic part of the heterotic supergravity which is, by construction, compatible with O(D, D)-symmetry.