A note on low-dimensional string compactifications

We study supersymmetric compactifications of type II strings on eightfolds to two dimensions. It is demonstrated that the type IIB string on an eightfold is free of gravitational anomalies. T-duality requires that this theory when further compactified on a circle must have a vacuum momentum; this is explicitly shown to be present and to have the right value. A subtlety in the relation of IIB compactifications and M-theory orientifolds to two dimensions is pointed out.