Topology changing processes and symmetries of string effective action

Abstract

Wormhole solutions corresponding to space-time geometries R 1×S 1×S 2 and R 1×S 3 are obtained from the reduced string effective action and the action is written in a manifestly O( d, d) invariant form. A general treatment is given for obtaining wormhole solutions of different topologies from dimensional reduction. For a specific ansatz of the internal metric and the antisymmetric field the reduced action is shown to have a global SL(2, C ) symmetry. The SL(2, C ) and duality symmetries have been exploited to generate new configurations of internal fields which produce wormhole solutions in four space-time dimensions. The SL(2, C ) symmetry discussed in this paper arises due to the specific form of the moduli and these transformations belong to a subgroup of O( d, d) global symmetry.