Does String Theory Have a Duality Symmetry Relating Weak and Strong Coupling?

Abstract

The heterotic string theory, compactified to four dimensions, has been conjectured to have a duality symmetry (S duality) that transforms the dilaton nonlinearly. If valid, this symmetry could provide an important means of obtaining information about nonperturbative features of the theory. Even though it is inherently nonperturbative, S duality exhibits many similarities with the well-established target-space duality symmetry (T duality), which does act perturbatively. These similarities are manifest in a new version of the low-energy effective field theory and in the soliton spectrum obtained by saturating the Bogomol'nyi bound. Curiously, there is evidence that the roles of the S and T dualities are interchanged in passing to a five-brane formulation.