String theory |
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Fundamental objects |
Perturbative theory |
Non-perturbative results |
Phenomenology |
Mathematics |
In physics, U-duality (short for unified duality)[1] is a symmetry of string theory or M-theory combining S-duality and T-duality transformations. The term is most often met in the context of the "U-duality (symmetry) group" of M-theory as defined on a particular background space (topological manifold). This is the union of all the S-duality and T-duality available in that topology. The narrow meaning of the word "U-duality" is one of those dualities that can be classified neither as an S-duality, nor as a T-duality - a transformation that exchanges a large geometry of one theory with the strong coupling of another theory, for example.