Consistency of M-Theory on Non-Orientable Manifolds

Abstract

We prove that there is no parity anomaly in M-theory in the low-energy field theory approximation. Our approach is computational. We determine the generators for the 12-dimensional bordism group of pin manifolds with a w 1 -twisted integer lift of w 4 ; these are the manifolds on which Wick-rotated M-theory exists. The anomaly cancellation comes down to computing a specific η-invariant and cubic form on these manifolds. Of interest beyond this specific problem are our expositions of computational techniques for η-invariants, the algebraic theory of cubic forms, Adams spectral sequence techniques and anomalies for spinor fields and Rarita–Schwinger fields.