T-duality in the Green-Schwarz formalism, and the massless/massive IIA duality map
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We derive a component-field expansion of the Green - Schwarz action for the type IIA string, in an arbitrary background of massless NS - NS and R - R bosonic fields, up to quadratic order in the fermionic coordinates . Using this action, we extend the usual derivation of Buscher T-duality rules to include not only NS - NS, but also R - R fields. Our implementation of the T-duality transformation rules makes use of adapted background-field parametrizations, which provide a more geometrically natural and elegant description for the duality maps than the ones previously presented. These T-duality rules allow us to derive the Green - Schwarz action for the type IIB string in an arbitrary background of massless NS - NS and R - R bosonic fields, up to O(2). Implementation of another T-duality transformation on this type IIB action then allows us also to derive the Green - Schwarz action for the massive IIA string. By further considering T-duality transformations for backgrounds with the two U(1) isometries of a 2-torus, we give a string-theoretic derivation of the direct T-duality relation between the massless and massive type IIA strings. In addition, we give an explicit construction of the D = 8 SL(3,) SL(2,) invariant supergravity with two mass parameters that form a doublet under the SL(2,) factor. 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.