Double Field Theory on Group Manifolds

A new version of double field theory (DFT) is derived for the exactly solvable background of an in general left-right asymmetric WZW model in the large level limit. This generalizes the original DFT that was derived via expanding closed string field theory on a torus up to cubic order. The action and gauge transformations are derived for fluctuations around the generalized group manifold background up to cubic order, revealing the appearance of a generalized Lie derivative and a corresponding C-bracket upon invoking a new version of the strong constraint. In all these quantities a background dependent covariant derivative appears reducing to the partial derivative for a toroidal background. This approach sheds some new light on the conceptual status of DFT, its background (in-)dependence and the up-lift of non-geometric Scherk-Schwarz reductions.