Nonperturbative Results on the Point Particle Limit of N=2 Heterotic String Compactifications

TL;DR

This paper uses heterotic/type II string duality to derive exact nonperturbative results for N=2 heterotic string compactifications in the point particle limit, providing a quantitative check on string duality and exploring geometric limits related to gauge theories.

Contribution

It presents the first exact nonperturbative results for certain N=2 heterotic compactifications using string duality, linking gauge theory and Calabi-Yau geometry.

Findings

Recovered nonperturbative results on N=2 gauge theories from string theory

Connected singular limits of Calabi-Yau manifolds to Riemann surfaces in gauge theory

Provided evidence supporting heterotic/type II string duality

Abstract

Using heterotic/type II string duality, we obtain exact nonperturbative results for the point particle limit (alpha' -> 0) of some particular four dimensional, N=2 supersymmetric compactifications of heterotic strings. This allows us to recover recent exact nonperturbative results on N=2 gauge theory directly from tree-level type II string theory, which provides a highly non-trivial, quantitative check on the proposed string duality. We also investigate to what extent the relevant singular limits of Calabi-Yau manifolds are related to the Riemann surfaces that underlie rigid N=2 gauge theory.