Courant algebroids are structures which neatly capture some of the mathematics of string theory — they are useful both in the worldsheet formulation and the low-energy effective theory viewpoint. Furthermore, they provide a natural framework for working with the Poisson-Lie T-duality of Klimčík and Ševera. In my talk I will review these ideas and discuss their extensions. I will focus on the most recent work (with M. Bugden, O. Hulík, and D. Waldram), where we developed the theory of "exceptional algebroids", which replace Courant algebroids in the context of M-theory and its compactifications. I will show how these objects provide a natural formulation of the recently introduced Poisson-Lie U-duality, and how they can be used to study consistent truncations.
Thomas Strobl
