ar X iv : h ep - t h / 98 05 21 1 v 1 2 9 M ay 1 99 8 NBI - HE - 98 - 15 T - Duality in Lattice Regularized σ - Models

It is shown that when the underlying sigma model of bosonic string theory is written in terms of single-valued fields, which live in the covering space of the target space, Abelian T-duality survives lattice regularization of the world-sheet. The projection onto the target-space is implemented through a sum over cohomology, which bears resemblance to summing over topological sectors in Yang-Mills theories. In particular, the case of string theory on a circle is shown to be explicitly self-dual in the lattice regulated model and automatically forbids vortex excitations which would otherwise destroy the duality. For other target spaces a generalized notion of T-duality is observed in which the target space and the cohomology coefficient group are interchanged under duality. Specific examples show that the fundamental group of the target space may not be preserved in the T-dual theory. Generalized models which exhibit T-duality behaviour, with dynamical variables that live on the k-dimensional cells of (p + 1)-dimensional world-volumes, are also constructed. These models correspond to gauge theories, and higher-dimensional analogues, in which one sums over various topological sectors of the theory.