Aspects of Type I - Type II - Heterotic Triality in Four Dimensions

Abstract

We discuss the equivalence between Type I, Type II and Heterotic N=2 superstring theories in four dimensions. We study the effective field theory of Type I models obtained by orientifold reductions of Type IIB compactifications on $K_3\times T^2$. We show that the perturbative prepotential is determined by the one-loop corrections to the Planck mass and is associated to an index. As is the case for threshold corrections to gauge couplings, this renormalization is entirely due to N=2 BPS states that originate from D=6 massless string modes. We apply our result to the so-called S-T-U model which admits simultaneous Type II and Heterotic descriptions, and show that all three prepotentials agree in the appropriate limits as expected from the superstring triality conjecture.

25 pages, LaTeX, 3 figures. Major revision of one-loop open string computations in section 5

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• Unity of Superstring Dualities
• Evidence for Heterotic - Type I String Duality
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• Exact Results for N=2 Compactifications of Heterotic Strings
• Comments on String Dynamics in Six Dimensions
• Algebras, BPS States, and Strings
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• N=2 Type II- Heterotic duality and Higher derivative F-terms
• Aspects of Duality in N=2 String Vacua
• Perturbative Prepotential and Monodromies in N=2 Heterotic Superstring
• Threshold effects in open-string theory
• Moduli Spaces and Target Space Duality Symmetries in $(0,2)Z_N$ Orbifold Theories with Continuous Wilson Lines
• BPS Spectra and Non--Perturbative Couplings in N=2,4 Supersymmetric String Theories
• Heterotic/Heterotic Duality in D=6,4
• Instanton Numbers and Exchange Symmetries in $N=2$ Dual String Pairs

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Aspects of N=1 Type I-Heterotic Duality in Four Dimensions
• Induced brane gravity: realizations and limitations
• Effective Action and Soft Supersymmetry Breaking for Intersecting D-brane Models
• Logarithmic loop corrections, moduli stabilisation and de Sitter vacua in string theory
• On the Magical Supergravities in Six Dimensions
• BPS states and supersymmetric index in N=2 type I string vacua
• One-loop masses of Neumann-Dirichlet open strings and boundary-changing vertex operators
• Non Perturbative Check of N=2, D=4 Heterotic/Type II Duality