1997/09/30 by Eva Silverstein
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Chiral anomaly #Chirality (physics) #Closing (real estate) #Combinatorics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Heterotic string theory #Limit (mathematics) #Mathematical analysis #Mathematics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Phase transition #Physics #Political science #Quantum chromodynamics #Quantum mechanics #String theory #Theoretical physics #Topology (electrical circuits) #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/s0920-5632(98)00160-1
published as Nucl.Phys.Proc.Suppl. 68 (1998) 274-278 · 8 pages, harvmac big, preprint number corrected (Talk presented at STRINGS'97, Amsterdam)
arxiv created 1997/12/18 · openalex publication_date 1998/11/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
I describe recent examples of phase transitions in four-dimensional M theory vacua in which the net generation number changes. There are naive obstructions to transitions lifting chiral matter, but loopholes exist which enable us to avoid them. I first review how chirality arises in the heterotic limit of M theory, previously known forms of topology change in string theory, and chirality-changing phase transitions in six dimensions. This leads to the construction of the four-dimensional examples, which involve wrapped M-theory fivebranes at an E8 wall.