Toward the Universal Theory of Strings

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that N=2 superstrings are a subset of N=4 superstrings, unifying various string theories with different supersymmetries as specific vacua within the N=4 framework.

Contribution

It establishes the equivalence between N=2 and N=4 superstrings and shows how all known linear algebra-based string theories with less than four supersymmetries are special cases of the N=4 superstring.

Findings

N=2 superstrings are equivalent to a special class of N=4 superstrings

All known string theories with N<4 supersymmetries are realizable as vacua of N=4 superstring

Unified framework for different string theories based on supersymmetry

Abstract

We show that the $N=2$ superstrings may be viewed as a special class of the $N=4$ superstrings and demonstrate their equivalence. This allows us to realize all known string theories based on linear algebras and with $N<4$ supersymmetries as special choices of the vacua in the $N=4$ superstring.