Emergence of $F^4$-couplings in Heterotic/Type IIA Dual String Theories

Abstract

The M-theoretic emergence proposal claims that in an isotropic decompactification limit to M-theory the full effective action is generated via quantum effects by integrating out only the light towers of states of the theory. In the BPS particle sector, these include transversally wrapped $M2$- and $M5$-branes possibly carrying Kaluza-Klein momentum. This implies that a longitudinally wrapped $M5$-brane, i.e. a wrapped $D4$-brane, is not to be included in emergence computations. In this work we collect explicit evidence supporting this point by examining an $F^4$ gauge coupling in six dimensions, making use of the duality between heterotic string theory on $T^4$ and strongly coupled type IIA on K3. In this instance, the M-theoretic emergence proposal can be viewed as a tool for making predictions for the microscopic behavior of string theoretic amplitudes.