Type IIA orientifolds on SU(2)-structure manifolds

We investigate the possible supersymmetry-preserving orientifold projections of type IIA string theory on a six-dimensional background with SU(2)-structure. We find two categories of projections which preserve half of the low-energy supersymmetry, reducing the effective theory from an N=4 supergravity theory, to an N=2 supergravity. For these two cases, we impose the projection on the low-energy spectrum and reduce the effective N=4 supergravity action accordingly. We can identify the resulting gauged N=2 supergravity theory and bring the action into canonical form. We compute the scalar moduli spaces and characterize the gauged symmetries in terms of the geometry of these moduli spaces. Due to their origin in N=4 supergravity, which is a highly constrained theory, the moduli spaces are of a very simple form. We find that, for suitable background manifolds, isometries in all scalar sectors can become gauged. The obtained gaugings share many features with those of N=2 supergravities obtained previously from other G-structure compactifications. (orig.)