1996/03/11 by M. J. Duff, M.J. Duff, H. Lü +3 · 7 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Heterotic string theory #Instanton #Phase transition #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #String (physics) #String duality #String field theory #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Type I string theory #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/0370-2693(96)00420-0
published as Phys.Lett.B378:101-106,1996 · Latex, 10 pages. Minor corrections, and extended discussion of singularities and phase transitions
arxiv created 1996/03/11 · openalex publication_date 1996/06/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Heterotic strings on R6 × K3 generically appear to undergo some interesting new phase transition at that value of the string coupling for which the one of the six-dimensional gauge field kinetic energies changes sign. An exception is the E8 × E8 string with equal instanton numbers in the two E8's, which admits a heterotic/heterotic self-duality. In this paper, we generalize the dyonic string solution of the six-dimensional heterotic string to include non-trivial gauge field configurations corresponding to self-dual Yang-Mills instantons in the four transverse dimensions. We find that vacua which undergo a phase transition always admit a string solution exhibiting a naked singularity, whereas for vacua admitting a self-duality the solution is always regular. When there is a phase transition, there exists a choice of instanton numbers for which the dyonic string is tensionless and quasi-anti-self-dual at that critical value of the coupling. For an infinite subset of the other choices of instanton number, the string will also be tensionless, but all at larger values of the coupling.