Related papers: Enhanced Gauge Symmetries and Calabi-Yau Threefold…
A type IIA string compactified on a Calabi-Yau manifold which admits a K3 fibration is believed to be equivalent to a heterotic string in four dimensions. We study cases where a Calabi-Yau manifold can have more than one such fibration…
We consider the general case of N=2 dual pairs of type IIA/heterotic string theories in four dimensions. We show that if the type IIA string in this pair can be viewed as having been compactified on a Calabi-Yau manifold in the usual way…
We show how enhanced gauge symmetry in type II string theory compactified on a Calabi--Yau threefold arises from singularities in the geometry of the target space. When the target space of the type IIA string acquires a genus $g$ curve $C$…
We study a class of extremal transitions between topological distinct Calabi--Yau manifolds which have an interpretation in terms of the special massless states of a type II string compactification. In those cases where a dual heterotic…
In this article we review four-dimensional string vacua with N=2 space-time supersymmetry. In particular, we will discuss several aspects of the string-string duality between the heterotic string, compactified on $K3\times T^2$, and the…
We present a new class of dualities relating non-geometric Calabi-Yau compactifications of type II string theory to T-fold compactifications of the heterotic string, both preserving four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetry. The…
We construct more dual pairs of type II-heterotic strings in four dimensions with $N=2,1$ spacetime supersymmetry. On the type II side the construction utilizes the various possible choices of K3 automorphisms with fixed points which…
Recent work on four dimensional effective descriptions of the heterotic string has identified the moduli of such systems as being given by kernels of maps between ordinary Dolbeault cohomology groups. The maps involved are defined by the…
Tests of duality between heterotic strings on $K3\times T^2$ (restricted on certain Narain moduli subspaces) and type IIA strings on K3-fibered Calabi-Yau threefolds are attempted in the weak coupling regime on the heterotic side by…
We give necessary conditions for the existence of perturbative heterotic and common sector type II string warped compactifications preserving four and eight supersymmetries to four spacetime dimensions, respectively. In particular, we find…
A type IIA string (or F-theory) compactified on a Calabi-Yau threefold is believed to be dual to a heterotic string on a K3 surface times a 2-torus (or on a K3 surface). We consider how the resulting moduli space of hypermultiplets is…
We provide the first explicit example of Type IIB string theory compactification on a globally defined Calabi-Yau threefold with torsion which results in a four-dimensional effective theory with a non-Abelian discrete gauge symmetry. Our…
We study the mechanism for appearance of massless solitons in type II string compactifications. We find that by combining $T$-duality with strong/weak duality of type IIB in 10 dimensions enhanced gauge symmetries and massless solitonic…
We discuss the possibility of the extension of the duality between the webs of heterotic string and the type IIA string to Calabi-Yau 3-folds with another K3 fiber by comparing the dual polyhedron of Calabi-Yau 3-folds given by Candelas,…
We study quantum effects in five dimensions in heterotic superstring theory compactified on K_3 x S_1 and analyze the conjecture that its dual effective theory is eleven-dimensional supergravity compactified on a Calabi-Yau threefold. This…
We study compactifications of F-theory on certain Calabi--Yau threefolds. We find that $N=2$ dualities of type II/heterotic strings in 4 dimensions get promoted to $N=1$ dualities between heterotic string and F-theory in 6 dimensions. The…
We discuss the structure of heterotic/type II duality in four dimensions as a consequence of string-string duality in six dimensions. We emphasize the new features in four dimensions which go beyond the six dimensional vacuum structure and…
Compactifications of heterotic string theory on Generalized Calabi-Yau manifolds have been expected to give the same type of flexibility that type IIB compactifications on Calabi-Yau orientifolds have. In this note we generalize the work…
We formulate a twisted version of the conjectured duality between heterotic and type I string theories. Our formulation relates the chiral part of the heterotic string with a type I topological B-model on a Calabi-Yau five-fold. We provide…
The non-perturbative equivalence of four-dimensional N=2 superstrings with three vector multiplets and four hypermultiplets is analysed. These models are obtained through freely acting orbifold compactifications from the heterotic, the…