A New Duality Symmetry in String Theory

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new duality symmetry in string theory arising from conformal gauging of non-abelian groups, revealing equivalences between different models through automorphisms.

Contribution

It formulates a novel duality symmetry based on inequivalent conformal gaugings of non-abelian groups using quotient methods.

Findings

Different gauging choices lead to equivalent conformal field theories.

The duality symmetry generalizes known abelian cases.

Automorphisms of the gauge group underpin the duality.

Abstract

We consider the conformal gauging of non-abelian groups. In such cases there are inequivalent ways of gauging (generalizing the axial and vector cases for abelian groups) corresponding to external automorphisms of the group. Different $\s$-models obtained this way correspond to the same conformal field theory. We use the method of quotients to formulate this equivalence as a new duality symmetry.