Eleven Dimensional Origin of String/String Duality: A One Loop Test

TL;DR

This paper tests the eleven-dimensional origin of string dualities by deriving string corrections from M-theory fivebrane effects, providing evidence for the unifying framework of string and M-theory.

Contribution

It demonstrates how one-loop string corrections can be derived from purely tree-level M-theory fivebrane effects, supporting the eleven-dimensional origin of string dualities.

Findings

Reproduces string correction terms from M-theory fivebrane calculations.

Shows K3 compactification yields heterotic string corrections.

Fixes gravitational and fivebrane tensions using eleven-dimensional parameters.

Abstract

Membrane/fivebrane duality in D=11 implies Type IIA string/Type IIA fivebrane duality in D=10, which in turn implies Type IIA string/heterotic string duality in D=6. To test the conjecture, we reproduce the corrections to the 3-form field equations of the D=10 Type IIA string (a mixture of tree-level and one-loop effects) starting from the Chern-Simons corrections to the 7-form Bianchi identities of the D=11 fivebrane (a purely tree-level effect). K3 compactification of the latter then yields the familiar gauge and Lorentz Chern-Simons corrections to 3-form Bianchi identities of the heterotic string. We note that the absence of a dilaton in the D=11 theory allows us to fix both the gravitational constant and the fivebrane tension in terms of the membrane tension. We also comment on an apparent conflict between fundamental and solitonic heterotic strings and on the puzzle of a fivebrane origin of S-duality.