String-Membrane Duality in Seven Dimensions
Abstract
The conjectured equivalence of the heterotic string to a compactified type IIA superstring is combined with the conjectured equivalence of the latter to a compactified 11-dimensional supermembrane to derive a string membrane duality in seven dimensions; the membrane is a soliton of the string theory and vice versa. A prediction of this duality is that the heterotic string is a compactification of the solitonic 11-dimensional fivebrane. It is verified that the worldsheet action of the D=10 heterotic string is indeed obtainable by compactification of the worldvolume action of the 11-dimensional fivebrane, and it is suggested how the worldvolume action of the D=11 supermebrane may be similarly obtained by compactification of the worldvolume action of a D=10 heterotic fivebrane. Generalizations to string-threebrane and membrane-membrane duality are also discussed.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.hep-th/9504095,
title = {String-Membrane Duality in Seven Dimensions},
author = {P. K. Townsend},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/9504095},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
The original version of this paper dealt mostly with one side of string-membrane duality: the solitonic interpretation of the heterotic string as a $K_3$ compactified D=11 superfivebrane. The revised version includes a discussion of the converse prediction: that the supermembrane has a solitonic interpretation as a $T^3$ compactified heterotic fivebrane. It also includes a discussion of D=8 membrane-membrane duality, and various changes to the references