Type I/heterotic duality and M-theory amplitudes

This paper investigates relationships between low-energy four-particle scattering amplitudes with external gauge particles and gravitons in the E_8 X E_8 and SO(32) heterotic string theories and the type I and type IA superstring theories by considering a variety of tree level and one-loop Feynman diagrams describing such amplitudes in eleven-dimensional supergravity in a Horava--Witten background compactified on a circle. This accounts for a number of perturbative and non-perturbative aspects of low order higher derivative terms in the low-energy expansion of string theory amplitudes, which are expected to be protected by half maximal supersymmetry from receiving corrections beyond one or two loops. It also suggests the manner in which type I/heterotic duality may be realised for certain higher derivative interactions that are not so obviously protected. For example, our considerations suggest that R**4 interactions (where R is the Riemann curvature) might receive no perturbative corrections beyond one loop by virtue of a conspiracy involving contributions from (non-BPS) Z2 D-instantons in the type I and heterotic SO(32) theories.