Topological T-Duality for Twisted Tori

Abstract: We apply the $C^*$-algebraic formalism of topological T-duality due to Mathai and Rosenberg to a broad class of topological spaces that include the torus bundles appearing in string theory compactifications with duality twists, such as nilmanifolds, as well as many other examples. We develop a simple procedure in this setting for constructing the T-duals starting from a commutative $C^*$-algebra with an action of ${\mathbb R}^n$. We treat the general class of almost abelian solvmanifolds in arbitrary dimension in detail, where we provide necessary and sufficient criteria for the existence of classical T-duals in terms of purely group theoretic data, and compute them explicitly as continuous-trace algebras with non-trivial Dixmier-Douady classes. We prove that any such solvmanifold has a topological T-dual given by a $C^*$-algebra bundle of noncommutative tori, which we also compute explicitly. The monodromy of the original torus bundle becomes a Morita equivalence among the fiber algebras, so that these $C^*$-algebras rigorously describe the T-folds from non-geometric string theory.