Superstrings with Torsion

Jun 8, 1986
32 pages
Published in:
  • Nucl.Phys.B 274 (1986) 253
  • Published: 1986
Report number:
  • NSF-ITP-86-16

Citations per year

19861996200620162025010203040
Abstract: (Elsevier)
The conditions for spacetime supersymmetry of the heterotic superstring in backgrounds with arbitrary metric, torsion, Yang-Mills and dilaton expectation values are determined using the sigma model approach. The resulting equations are explicitly solved for the torsion and dilaton fields, and the remaining equations cast in a simple form. Previously unnoticed topological obstructions to solving these equations are found. The equations are shown to agree to leading order in perturbation theory with those derived in a field theory approach, provided one considers a more general ansatz than in previous analyses by allowing for a warp factor for the metric. Exact solutions with non-zero torsion are found, indicating a new class of finite sigma models. These solutions break the E χ ⊗ E χ or SO(32) gauge group down to a large variety of subgroups. Orbifolds with torsion are constructed. A perturbative analysis of the equations indicates a class of solutions whose existence has been recently argued for on other grounds. Brief comments are made on the implications for phenomenology.
  • MODEL: STRING
  • SUPERSYMMETRY
  • GAUGE FIELD THEORY: E(8) X E(8)
  • GAUGE FIELD THEORY: SO(32)
  • FIELD THEORY: HIGHER-DIMENSIONAL
  • FIELD THEORY: VACUUM STATE
  • FIELD THEORY: TORSION
  • FIELD EQUATIONS: SOLUTION
  • PERTURBATION THEORY
  • FIELD THEORETICAL MODEL: SIGMA