T Duality Between Perturbative Characters of $E_8\otimes E_8$ and SO(32) Heterotic Strings Compactified On A Circle

Abstract

Characters of $E_8\otimes E_8$ and SO(32) heterotic strings involving the full internal symmetry Cartan subalgebra generators are defined after circle compactification so that they are T dual. The novel point, as compared with an earlier study of the type II case (hep-th/9707107), is the appearence of Wilson lines. Using SO(17,1) transformations between the weight lattices reveals the existence of an intermediate theory where T duality transformations are disentangled from the internal symmetry. This intermediate theory corresponds to a sort of twisted compactification of a novel type. Its modular invariance follows from an interesting interplay between three representations of the modular group.