1999/02/03 by Ignatios Antoniadis, Jean-Pierre Derendinger, J. -Pierre Derendinger +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Heterotic string theory #Manifold (fluid mechanics) #Mathematical physics #Moduli #Moduli space #Non-perturbative #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Phase transition #Physics #Pure mathematics #Quantum mechanics #String (physics) #String theory #Supergravity #Superstring theory #Supersymmetry #Supersymmetry breaking #Theoretical physics #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/s0550-3213(99)00171-6
published as Nucl.Phys.B551:41-77,1999 · 45 pages, LATEX file, no figures
arxiv created 1999/02/03 · openalex publication_date 1999/06/01 · arxiv updated 2014/11/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We derive a universal thermal effective potential, which describes all possible high-temperature instabilities of the known N=4 superstrings, using the properties of gauged N=4 supergravity. These instabilities are due to three non-perturbative thermal dyonic modes, which become tachyonic in a region of the thermal moduli space. The latter is described by three moduli, s,t,u, which are common to all non-perturbative dual-equivalent strings with N=4 supersymmetry in five dimensions: the heterotic on T4xS1, the type IIA on K3xS1, the type IIB on K3xS1 and the type I on T4x S1. The non-perturbative instabilities are analysed. These strings undergo a high-temperature transition to a new phase in which five-branes condense. This phase is described in detail, using both the effective supergravity and non-critical string theory in six dimensions. In the new phase, supersymmetry is perturbatively restored but broken at the non-perturbative level. In the infinite-temperature limit the theory is topological with an N=2 supersymmetry based on a topologically non-trivial hyper-Kahler manifold.