1996/08/30 by Shamit Kachru, Eva Silverstein
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Compactification (mathematics) #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Gauge theory #Heterotic string theory #Instanton #Mathematical physics #Mathematics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Pure mathematics #String (physics) #String field theory #String theory #Superpotential #Supersymmetry #Supersymmetry breaking #Theoretical physics #Worldsheet #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/s0550-3213(96)00547-0
published as Nucl.Phys.B482:92-104,1996 · 16 pages, harvmac big
arxiv created 1996/08/30 · openalex publication_date 1996/12/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We describe a class of 4d N=1 compactifications of the SO(32) heterotic/type I string theory which are destabilized by nonperturbatively generated superpotentials. In the type I description, the destabilizing superpotential is generated by a one instanton effect or gaugino condensation in a nonperturbative SU(2) gauge group. The dual, heterotic description involves destabilization due to worldsheet instanton or \it half worldsheet instanton effects in the two cases. A genericity argument suggests that a (global) supersymmetry-breaking model of Intriligator and Thomas might be typical in a class of string theory models. Our analysis also suggests that the tensionless strings which arise in the E8 × E8 theory in six dimensions when an instanton shrinks to zero size should, in some cases, have supersymmetry breaking dynamics upon further compactification to four dimensions. We provide explicit examples, constructed using F-theory, of the two cases of dynamically generated superpotentials.