Orbifolds of M-theory and string theory

Abstract

It is shown that many of the conjectured dualities involving orbifold compactification of M-theory follow from the known dualities involving M-theory and string theory in 10 dimensions, and the ansatz that orbifolding procedure commutes with the duality transformation. This ansatz also leads to a new duality conjecture, namely that M-theory compactified on T⁸/Z₂ is dual to type I string theory on T⁷. In this case the "twisted sector states" in M-theory live on 16 membranes transverse to the internal manifold.