Trivialization of the gravitational Green-Schwarz mechanism in the non-relativistic limit of string theory

Abstract: We show that the gravitational Green-Schwarz anomaly cancellation mechanism becomes trivial in the non-relativistic (NR) limit of ten-dimensional heterotic supergravity with four-derivative corrections. We perform a NR expansion of the Kalb-Ramond field and identify the finite Green-Schwarz transformation in this limit, which can be interpreted as a non-covariant SO(8) transformation. We then construct an explicit field redefinition such that the redefined two-form is invariant under this symmetry. This result is compared with the previously reported trivialization of the gauge Green-Schwarz mechanism under the same limit. Both field redefinitions can be implemented simultaneously, and the associated Chern-Simons terms are exact, arising directly from the redefinition structure, and leading to a trivial Bianchi identity. These results imply that anomaly cancellation becomes automatic in the NR regime, extending the consistent formulations of NR heterotic string theories and giving rise to a richer class of topological heterotic backgrounds with simpler thermodynamical properties such as the Wald entropy and the first law.