English

The SO(32) Heterotic String on a K3 Surface

High Energy Physics - Theory 2019-08-15 v2

Abstract

The SO(32) heterotic string on a K3 surface is analyzed in terms of the dual theory of a type II string (or F-theory) on an elliptically fibred Calabi-Yau manifold. The results are in beautiful agreement with earlier work by Witten using very different methods. In particular, we find gauge groups of SO(32) x Sp(k) appearing at points in the moduli space identified with point-like instantons and see hypermultiplets in the (32,2k) representation becoming massless at the same time. We also discuss some aspects of the E8 x E8 case.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/9605131,
  title  = {The SO(32) Heterotic String on a K3 Surface},
  author = {Paul S. Aspinwall and Mark Gross},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/9605131},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

12 pages, LaTeX, 1 figure, refs modified

R2 v1 2026-07-22T15:59:27.432Z