Lectures on Heterotic-Type I Duality

TL;DR

This paper reviews heterotic-type I string duality, discussing effective field theories in various dimensions and testing dualities through gauge couplings, prepotentials, and higher-derivative terms, highlighting the consistency of the duality framework.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of heterotic-type I duality, including detailed duality tests and effective field theory descriptions in multiple dimensions.

Findings

Successful matching of gauge couplings in dual theories

Agreement of N=2 prepotentials across dual descriptions

Consistency of higher-derivative F-terms with duality predictions

Abstract

We present a review of heterotic-type I string duality. In particular, we discuss the effective field theory of six- and four-dimensional compactifications with N>1 supersymmetries. We then describe various duality tests by comparing gauge couplings, N=2 prepotentials, as well as higher-derivative F-terms. Based on invited lectures delivered at: 33rd Karpacz Winter School of Theoretical Physics ``Duality, Strings and Fields,'' Przesieka, Poland, 13 - 22 February 1997; Trieste Conference on Duality Symmetries in String Theory, Trieste, Italy, 1 - 4 April 1997; Cargese Summer School ``Strings, Branes and Dualities,'' Cargese, France, 26 May - 14 June 1997.