Half-maximal supersymmetry from exceptional field theory

Abstract: We study $D \geq 4$-dimensional half-maximal flux backgrounds using exceptional field theory. We define the relevant generalised structures and also find the integrability conditions which give warped half-maximal $\mathrm{Minkowski}_D$ and $\mathrm{AdS}_D$ vacua. We then show how to obtain consistent truncations of type II / 11-dimensional SUGRA which break half the supersymmetry. Such truncations can be defined on backgrounds admitting exceptional generalised $\mathrm{SO}(d-1-N)$ structures, where $d = 11 - D$, and $N$ is the number of vector multiplets obtained in the lower-dimensional theory. Our procedure yields the most general embedding tensors satisfying the linear constraint of half-maximal gauged SUGRA. We use this to prove that all $D\geq 4$ half-maximal warped $\mathrm{AdS}_D$ and Minkowski$_D$ vacua of type II / 11-dimensional SUGRA admit a consistent truncation keeping only the gravitational supermultiplet. We also show to obtain heterotic double field theory from exceptional field theory and comment on the M-theory / heterotic duality. In five dimensions, we find a new $\mathrm{SO}(5,N)$ double field theory with a $(6+N)$-dimensional extended space. Its section condition has one solution corresponding to 10-dimensional ${\cal N}=1$ supergravity and another yielding six-dimensional ${\cal N}=\left(2,0\right)$ SUGRA.