Heterotic and Type I string dynamics from eleven dimensions

We propose that the ten-dimensional E₈ × E₈ heterotic string is related to an eleven-dimensional theory on the orbifold in the same way that the Type IIA string in ten dimensions is related to . This in particular determines the strong coupling behavior of the ten-dimensional E₈ × E₈ theory. It also leads to a plausible scenario whereby duality between SO(32) heterotic and Type I superstrings follows from the classical symmetries of the eleven-dimensional world, just as the duality of the ten-dimensional Type IIB theory follows from eleven-dimensional diffeomorphism invariance.     

Phenomenology and conformal field theory or can string theory predict the weak mixing angle?

We show that the weak mixing angle θ_w is the same for continuously connected classical vacua of the heterotic string which have chiral fermions in their massless spectra. We also show that the world-sheet quantum field theory for any classical vacuum with spacetime supersymmetry possesses an N = 2 superconformal invariance.     

Small instantons in string theory

A long-standing puzzle about the heterotic string has been what happens when an instanton shrinks to zero size. It is argued here that the answer at the quantum level is that an extra SU(2) gauge symmetry appears that is supported in the core of the instanton. Thus in particular the quantum heterotic string has vacua with higher rank than is possible in conformal field theory. When k instantons collapse at the same point, the enhanced gauge symmetry is Sp(k). These results, which can be tested by comparison to Dirichlet five-branes of Type I superstrings and to the ADHM construction of instantons, give the first example for the heterotic string of a non-perturbative phenomenon that cannot be turned off by making the coupling smaller. They have applications to several interesting puzzles about string duality.     

Non-perturbative superpotentials in string theory

The non-perturbative superpotential can be effectively calculated in M-theory compactification to three dimensions on a Calabi-Yau four-fold X. For certain X, the superpotential is identically zero, while for other X, a non-perturbative superpotential is generated. Using F-theory, these results carry over to certain Type IIB and heterotic string compactifications to four dimensions with N = 1 supersymmetry. In the heterotic string case, the non-perturbative superpotential can be interpreted as coming from space-time and world-sheet instantons; in many simple cases contributions come only from finitely many values of the instanton numbers.     

New principles for string/membrane unification

The target space theory of the N = (2,1) heterotic string may be interpreted as a theory of gravity coupled to matter in either 1 + 1 or 2 + 1 dimensions. Among the target space theories in 1 + 1 dimensions are the bosonic, type II, and heterotic string world-sheet field theories in a physical gauge. The (2 + 1)-dimensional version describes a consistent quantum theory of supermembranes in 10 + 1 dimensions. The unifying framework for all of these vacua is a theory of (2 + 2)-dimensional self-dual geometries embedded in 10 + 2 dimensions. There are also indications that the N = (2,1) string describes the strong-coupling dynamics of compactifications of critical string theories to two dimensions, and may lead to insights about the fundamental degrees of freedom of the theory.     

The heterotic string is a soliton

It is shown that the Type IIA superstring compactified on K3 has a smooth string soliton with the same zero mode structure as the heterotic string compactified on a four-torus, thus providing new evidence for a conjectured exact duality between the two six-dimensional string theories. The chiral worldsheet bosons arise as zero modes of Ramond-Ramond fields of the IIA string theory and live on a signature (20,4) even, self-dual lattice. Stable, finite loops of soliton string provide the charged Ramond-Ramond states necessary for enhanced gauge symmetries at degeneration points of the K3 surface. It is also shown that Type IIB strings toroidally compactified to six dimensions have a multiplet of string solutions with Type II worldsheets.     

Superstrings on hyperelliptic surfaces and the two-loop vanishing of the cosmological constant

We calculate the supersymmetric type II string partition function in a flat background for the situation where the world-sheet is hyperelliptic. We show explicitly that the contribution to the cosmological constant from hyperelliptic world-surfaces vanishes for genus ⩽ 20. This implies, in particular, that the cosmological constant vanishes completely to two loops. Due to the decoupling of the holomorphic and antiholomorphic sectors, this conclusion holds equally well for the heterotic string.     

Off‐shell Amplitudes in Superstring Theory

Computing the renormalized masses and S‐matrix elements in string theory, involving states whose masses are not protected from quantum corrections, requires defining off‐shell amplitude with certain factorization properties. While in the bosonic string theory one can in principle construct such an amplitude from string field theory, there is no fully consistent field theory for type II and heterotic string theory. In this paper we give a practical construction of off‐shell amplitudes satisfying the desired factorization property using the formalism of picture changing operators. We describe a systematic procedure for dealing with the spurious singularities of the integration measure that we encounter in superstring perturbation theory. This procedure is also useful for computing on‐shell amplitudes, as we demonstrate by computing the effect of Fayet‐Iliopoulos D‐terms in four dimensional heterotic string theory compactifications using this formalism.     

Self-Dual Strings in Six Dimensions: Anomalies,the <Emphasis Type="Italic">ADE</Emphasis>-Classification,and the World-Sheet <Emphasis Type="Italic">WZW</Emphasis>-Model

We consider the (2,0) supersymmetric theory of tensor multiplets and self-dual strings in six space-time dimensions. Space-time diffeomorphisms that leave the string world-sheet invariant appear as gauge transformations on the normal bundle of the world-sheet. The naive invariance of the model under such transformations is however explicitly broken by anomalies: The electromagnetic coupling of the string to the two-form gauge field of the tensor multiplet suffers from a classical anomaly, and there is also a one-loop quantum anomaly from the chiral fermions on the string world-sheet. Both of these contributions are proportional to the Euler class of the normal bundle of the string world-sheet, and consistency of the model requires that they cancel. This imposes strong constraints on possible models, which are found to obey an ADE-classification. We then consider the decoupled world-sheet theory that describes low-energy fluctuations (compared to the scale set by the string tension) around a configuration with a static, straight string. The anomaly structure determines this to be a supersymmetric version of the level one Wess-Zumino-Witten model based on the group      

Gauge fields and D-branes

We prove that self-dual gauge fields in type I superstring theory are equivalent to configurations of Dirichlet 5-branes, by showing that the world-sheet theory of a Dirichlet 1-brane moving in a background of 5-branes includes an “ADHM sigma model”. This provides an explicit construction of the equivalent self-dual gauge field. We also discuss type II.     

Plane waves in effective field theories of superstrings

Exact plane wave solutions of d = 10, N = 1 Einstein-Yang-Mills supergravity theory are presented and their possible modifications in superstring effective theories are examined. It is found that the solutions are not affected by any of the known heterotic string corrections. It is argued that plane waves satisfy the effective field equations of the heterotic string theory in all powers of the string tension parameter α′, possibly after including a totally antisymmetric torsion field and reinterpreting the constants. Similar remarks also apply for type I superstrings. Further properties of the solutions are discussed.     

Compactifications of the heterotic string with unitary bundles

We describe a large new class of four‐dimensional supersymmetric string vacua defined as compactifications of the E₈ × E₈ and the SO(32) heterotic string on smooth Calabi‐Yau threefolds with unitary gauge bundles and heterotic five‐branes. The conventional gauge symmetry breaking via Wilson lines is replaced by the embedding of non‐flat line bundles into the ten‐dimensional gauge group, thus opening up the way for phenomenologically interesting string compactifications on simply connected manifolds. After a detailed analysis of the four‐dimensional effective theory we exemplify the general framework by means of a couple of explicit examples involving the spectral cover construction of stable holomorphic bundles. As for the SO(32) heterotic string, the resulting vacua can be viewed, in the S‐dual Type I picture, as a generalisation of magnetized D9/D5‐brane models. In the case of the E₈ × E₈ string, we find a natural way to construct realistic MSSM‐like models, either directly or via a flipped SU(5) GUT scenario.     

Microscopic knowledge from macroscopic physics in string theory

Many questions about the detailed microscopic properties of string theories can be addressed by focusing on the interactions of the massless states after integrating out the massive modes. We explain the connection of this wilsonian approach in spacetime to the wilsonian view of the renormalization group on the world-sheet, and use this viewpoint to resolve a number of problems. The difference between the Ricci-flat and non-Ricci flat compactifications on Calabi-Yau spaces is clarified. A detailed understanding of some subtleties in the calculations of zero momentum amplitudes resolves a confusion which has arisen concerning axion decoupling and non-renormalization theorems. We show that in compactifications of the heterotic string on any (2,2) superconformal model (with world-sheet parity), every charged matter field is accompanied by a modulus of the compact space. Thus there are no isolated vacua with charged fields. It is shown that classical solutions with broken supersymmetry are never continously connected to vacua with unbroken supersymmetry at tree level. We also show that if supersymmetry is preserved at tree level, one cannot break supersymmetry with vanishing or very small cosmological constant at arbitrarily weak coupling.     

Pohlmeyer reduction of superstring sigma model

Motivated by a desire to find a useful 2d Lorentz-invariant reformulation of the AdS₅×S⁵ superstring world-sheet theory in terms of physical degrees of freedom we construct the “Pohlmeyer-reduced” version of the corresponding sigma model. The Pohlmeyer reduction procedure involves several steps. Starting with a coset space string sigma model in the conformal gauge and writing the classical equations in terms of currents one can fix the residual conformal diffeomorphism symmetry and kappa-symmetry and introduce a new set of variables (related locally to currents but non-locally to the original string coordinate fields) so that the Virasoro constraints are automatically satisfied. The resulting equations can be obtained from a Lagrangian of a non-Abelian Toda type: a gauged WZW model with an integrable potential coupled also to a set of 2d fermionic fields. A gauge-fixed form of the Pohlmeyer-reduced theory can be found by integrating out the 2d gauge field of the gauged WZW model. The small-fluctuation spectrum near the trivial vacuum contains 8 bosonic and 8 fermionic degrees of freedom with equal mass. We conjecture that the reduced model has world-sheet supersymmetry and is ultraviolet-finite. We show that in the special case of the AdS₂×S² superstring model the reduced theory is indeed supersymmetric: it is equivalent to the N=2 supersymmetric extension of the sine-Gordon model.     

String creation and heterotic-type I′ duality

The BPS spectrum of type I′ string theory in a generic background is derived using the duality with the nine-dimensional heterotic string theory with Wilson lines. It is shown that the corresponding mass formula has a natural interpretation in terms of type I′, and it is demonstrated that the relevant states in type I′ preserve supersymmetry. By considering certain BPS states for different Wilson lines an independent confirmation of the string creation phenomenon in the DOD8 system is found. We also comment on the non-perturbative realization of gauge enhancement in type I′, and on the predictions for the quantum mechanics of type I′ DO-branes.     

On the computation of one-loop amplitudes with external fermions in 4D heterotic superstrings

We present the technical tools needed to compute any one-loop amplitude involving external spacetime fermions in a four-dimensional heterotic string model à la Kawai-Lewellen-Tye. As an example, we compute the one-loop three-point amplitude with one “photon” and two external massive fermions (“electrons”). As a check of our computation, we verify that the one-loop contribution to the Anomalous Magnetic Moment vanishes if the model has spacetime supersymmetry, as required by the supersymmetric sum rules.     

Heterotic string dark matter from the graviton multiplet

In the string theory framework for physics beyond the standard model the hidden sector of E₈×E₈ heterotic string theory and the graviton multiplet provide compelling sources for the dark matter in the universe.

In the present investigation I consider the graviton multiplet as one particular dark matter source in heterotic string theory. In particular, it is pointed out that an appreciable fraction of dark matter from the graviton multiplet requires a mass generating phase transition around T_c10⁸ GeV, where the symmetry partners of the graviton would evolve from an ultrahard fluid to pressureless dark matter. This indicates m10 MeV for the massive components of the graviton multiplet, and it is reassuring that the corresponding dilaton lifetime τ10¹⁷ s is compatible with a dark matter interpretation.     

Heterotic string from a higher dimensional perspective

The (abelian bosonic) heterotic string effective action, equations of motion and Bianchi identity at order α^′ in ten dimensions, are shown to be equivalent to a higher dimensional action, its derived equations of motion and Bianchi identity. The two actions are the same up to the gauge fields: the latter are absorbed in the higher dimensional fields and geometry. This construction is inspired by heterotic T-duality, which becomes natural in this higher dimensional theory.We also prove the equivalence of the heterotic string supersymmetry conditions with higher dimensional geometric conditions. Finally, some known Kähler and non-Kähler heterotic solutions are shown to be trivially related from this higher dimensional perspective, via a simple exchange of directions. This exchange can be encoded in a heterotic T-duality, and it may also lead to new solutions.     

Exactly solvable string compactifications on manifolds of SU(N) holonomy

A variety of heterotic string compactifications on the K3 surface, manifolds of SU(3) holomony, and higher holomony manifolds, are solved exactly. An example of the quintic hypersurface in CP₄ is worked out in detail. It is conjectured, and demonstrated in part, that any supersymmetric compactification of the heterotic string with an N=2 superconformal theory is equivalent to a compactification on a manifold of SU(N) holonomy, and in particular an arbitrary gluing of the discrete models with c=9 gives a solvable heterotic string compactification on some Calabi-Yau manifold. Calabi-Yau compactifications are seen to be exact vacua of string theory, retaining their topological and geometrical characteristics. Previously unknown enhanced gauge symmetries are found to arise for certain backgrounds.     

Catoptric tadpoles

Fermionic string perturbation theory is known to suffer from an ambiguity in the form of a total derivative in the moduli space. For a class of backgrounds (including R¹⁰, orbifolds and theories with no U(1) factors in gauge group) we show that these ambiguities for the partition function of heterotic string theory at any genus are proportional to massless physical tadpoles in the theory at lower genera and hence vanish in stable vacua. We also find that in R¹⁰ the cosmological constant at a given genus is proportional to the cosmological constant at lower genera. This enables us to give an inductive argument for the vanishing of the cosmological constant in R¹⁰ to all orders in string perturbation theory. We also address the ambiguity and finiteness of n-point functions. Our results indicate that in R¹⁰ the ambiguity can be absorbed by a renormalization of the string coupling constant and the string tension. The expected sources of divergence in the n-point function in arbitrary tachyon-free backgrounds, besides the usual infrared divergences for d ≤ 4, are shown to be proportional to tadpoles of physical massless fields. For type II strings in arbitrary backgrounds, we show by explicit calculations that the ambiguity vanishes at g = 2.