S-duality

String theory
Fundamental objects
String Cosmic string Brane D-brane
Perturbative theory
Bosonic Superstring (Type I, Type II, Heterotic)
Non-perturbative results
S-duality T-duality U-duality M-theory F-theory AdS/CFT correspondence
Phenomenology
Phenomenology Cosmology Landscape
Mathematics
Geometric Langlands correspondence Mirror symmetry Monstrous moonshine Vertex algebra K-theory
Related concepts Theory of everything Conformal field theory Quantum gravity Supersymmetry Supergravity Twistor string theory N = 4 supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory Kaluza–Klein theory Multiverse Holographic principle
Theorists Aganagić Arkani-Hamed Atiyah Banks Berenstein Bousso Curtright Dijkgraaf Distler Douglas Duff Dvali Ferrara Fischler Friedan Gates Gliozzi Gopakumar Green Greene Gross Gubser Gukov Guth Hanson Harvey Hořava Horowitz Gibbons Kachru Kaku Kallosh Kaluza Kapustin Klebanov Knizhnik Kontsevich Klein Linde Maldacena Mandelstam Marolf Martinec Minwalla Moore Motl Mukhi Myers Nanopoulos Năstase Nekrasov Neveu Nielsen van Nieuwenhuizen Novikov Olive Ooguri Ovrut Polchinski Polyakov Rajaraman Ramond Randall Randjbar-Daemi Roček Rohm Sagnotti Scherk Schwarz Seiberg Sen Shenker Siegel Silverstein Sơn Staudacher Steinhardt Strominger Sundrum Susskind 't Hooft Townsend Trivedi Turok Vafa Veneziano Verlinde Verlinde Wess Witten Yau Yoneya Zamolodchikov Zamolodchikov Zaslow Zumino Zwiebach
History Glossary
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In theoretical physics, S-duality (short for strong–weak duality, or Sen duality) is an equivalence of two physical theories, which may be either quantum field theories or string theories. S-duality is useful for doing calculations in theoretical physics because it relates a theory in which calculations are difficult to a theory in which they are easier.^[1]

In quantum field theory, S-duality generalizes a well established fact from classical electrodynamics, namely the invariance of Maxwell's equations under the interchange of electric and magnetic fields. One of the earliest known examples of S-duality in quantum field theory is Montonen–Olive duality which relates two versions of a quantum field theory called N = 4 supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory. Recent work of Anton Kapustin and Edward Witten suggests that Montonen–Olive duality is closely related to a research program in mathematics called the geometric Langlands program. Another realization of S-duality in quantum field theory is Seiberg duality, which relates two versions of a theory called N=1 supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory.

There are also many examples of S-duality in string theory. The existence of these string dualities implies that seemingly different formulations of string theory are actually physically equivalent. This led to the realization, in the mid-1990s, that all of the five consistent superstring theories are just different limiting cases of a single eleven-dimensional theory called M-theory.^[2]