Monstrous String-String Duality

Abstract

We analyze the general class of supersymmetry preserving orbifolds of strong/weak Type IIA/heterotic dual pairs in six dimensions and below. A unified treatment is given by considering compactification to two spacetime dimensions and constructing orbifolds by subgroups of the Fischer-Greiss monster, utilizing the moonshine results of Conway and Norton. Duality requires nontrivial Ramond-Ramond fluxes on the Type IIA side which are localized at the fixed points. Further orbifolding by (-1)^{F_L} gives examples of new four dimensional N=2 Type IIA vacua which are not conformal field theory backgrounds.

18 pages, harvmac, tables (Final version to appear in Nucl. Phys. B.)