Four-dimensional N = 2 superstring constructions and their (non-) perturbative duality connections Original Research Article

We investigate the connections between four-dimensional, N = 2 M-theory vacua constructed as orbifolds of type II, heterotic, and type I strings. All these models have the same massless spectrum, which contains an equal number of vector multiplets and hypermultiplets, with a gauge group of the maximal rank allowed in a perturbative heterotic string construction. We find evidence for duality between two type I compactifications recently proposed and a new heterotic construction that we present here. This duality allows us to gain insight into the non-perturbative properties of these models. In particular we consider gravitational corrections to the effective action.