Enhanced gauge symmetries in superstring theories Original Research Article

Certain four-dimensional N = 4 supersymmetric theories have special vacua in which massive charged vector supermultiplets become massless, resulting in an enhanced non-abelian gauge symmetry. We show here that any two N = 4 theories having the same Bogomolnyi spectrum at corresponding points of their moduli spaces have the same enhanced symmetry groups. In particular, the K3 × T2 compactified type II string is argued to have the same enhanced symmetry groups as the 6-compactified heterotic string, giving further evidence for our conjecture that these two string theories are equivalent. A feature of the enhanced symmetry phase is that for every electrically charged state whose mass tends to zero as an enhanced symmetry point is approached, there are magnetically charged and dyonic states whose masses also tend to zero, a result that applies equally to N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory. These extra non-perturbative massless states in theK3 compactification result from p-branes wrapping around collapsed homology two-cycles of K3. Finally, we show how membrane ‘wrapping modes’ lead to symmetry enhancement in D = 11 supergravity, providing further evidence that the K3-compactified D = 11 supergravity is the effective field theory of the strong coupling limit of the T3-compactified heterotic string.