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Title: Heterotic/Type-II duality and its field theory avatars

Journal Article · · AIP Conference Proceedings
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1301387· OSTI ID:21210258
 [1]
  1. Theory Division, CERN CH-1211, Geneva 23 (Switzerland)

In these lecture notes, I will describe heterotic/type-II duality in six and four dimensions. When supersymmetry is the maximal N=4 it will be shown that the duality reduces in the field theory limit to the Montonen-Olive duality of N=4 Super Yang-Mills theory. We will consider further compactifications of type II theory on Calabi-Yau manifolds. We will understand the physical meaning of geometric conifold singularities and the dynamics of conifold transitions. When the CY manifold is a K3 fibration we will argue that the type-II ground-state is dual to the heterotic theory compactified on K3xT{sup 2}. This allows an exact computation of the low effective action. Taking the field theory limit, {alpha}{sup '}{yields}0, we will recover the Seiberg-Witten non-perturbative solution of N=2 gauge theory.

OSTI ID:
21210258
Journal Information:
AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 490, Issue 1; Conference: 8. Mexican school on particles and fields, Oaxaca de Juarez (Mexico), 20-28 Nov 1998; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.1301387; (c) 1999 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English