Abelian and Non-Abelian Dualities in String Bacgrounds

TL;DR

This paper explores duality symmetries in complex string backgrounds, introducing a new non-abelian duality and illustrating it with examples like WZW models and black holes.

Contribution

It identifies a novel type of duality for non-abelian gauge groups in string theory backgrounds, extending previous abelian duality results.

Findings

Reproduces standard abelian duality results

Introduces a new non-abelian duality concept

Provides examples with WZW models and 4D black holes

Abstract

We present a brief discussion of recent work on duality symmetries in non-trivial string backgrounds. Duality is obtained from a gauged non-linear sigma-model with vanishing gauge field strength. Standard results are reproduced for abelian gauge groups, whereas a new type of duality is identified for non--abelian gauge groups. Examples of duals of WZW models and 4-d black holes are given. (Presented at `From Superstrings to Supergravity', Erice 1992)