Exceptional SW Geometry from ALE Fibrations

We show that the genus 34 Seiberg-Witten curve underlying $N=2$ Yang-Mills theory with gauge group $E_6$ yields physically equivalent results to the manifold obtained by fibration of the $E_6$ ALE singularity. This reconciles a puzzle raised by $N=2$ string duality

Quartic Gauge Couplings from K3 Geometry

We show how certain F^4 couplings in eight dimensions can be computed using the mirror map and K3 data. They perfectly match with the corresponding heterotic one-loop couplings, and therefore this amounts to a successful test of the conjectured duality between the heterotic string on T^2 and F-theory on K3. The underlying quantum geometry appears to be a 5-fold, consisting of a hyperk"ahler 4-fold fibered over a IP^1 base. The natural candidate for this fiber is the symmetric product Sym^2(K3). We are lead to this structure by analyzing the implications of higher powers of E_2 in the relevant Borcherds counting functions, and in particular the appropriate generalizations of the Picard-Fuchs equations for the K3.Comment: 32 p, harvmac; One footnote on page 11 extended; results unchanged; Version subm. to ATM

Prepotentials from Symmetric Products

We investigate the prepotential that describes certain F^4 couplings in eight dimensional string compactifications, and show how they can be computed from the solutions of inhomogenous differential equations. These appear to have the form of the Picard-Fuchs equations of a fibration of Sym^2(K3) over P^1. Our findings give support to the conjecture that the relevant geometry which underlies these couplings is given by a five-fold.Comment: 19p, harvmac; One sign in eq. (A.2) change