Doubled α ′-geometry

Abstract

We develop doubled-coordinate field theory to determine the α ′ corrections to the massless sector of oriented bosonic closed string theory. Our key tool is a string current algebra of free left-handed bosons that makes O(D,D) T-duality manifest. While T-dualities are unchanged, diffeomorphisms and b-field gauge transformations receive corrections, with a gauge algebra given by an α ′-deformation of the duality-covariantized Courant bracket. The action is cubic in a double metric field, an unconstrained extension of the generalized metric that encodes the gravitational fields. Our approach provides a consistent truncation of string theory to massless fields with corrections that close at finite order in α ′.