In this paper we build a family of heterotic deformations of the O(N) sigma model. These deformations break (1,1) supersymmetry down to (0,1) symmetry. We solve this model at large N. We also find an alternative superfield formulation of the heterotic CP^N sigma model which was discussed in the literature before.
We determine the two--dimensional Weyl, Lorentz and $κ$--anomalies in the $D=10$ Green--Schwarz heterotic string sigma--model, in an $SO(1,9)$-Lorentz covariant background gauge, and prove their cancellation.
We discuss instanton fermionic zero modes in the heterotic N=(0,2) modification of the CP(1) sigma model in two dimensions. By calculating its chiral anomaly we prove that the number of fermionic zero modes is same as in the standard N=(2,2) CP(1) case, and determine their explicit form.
We study the non-linear sigma model realization of a heterotic vacuum with N=2 space-time supersymmetry. We examine the requirements of (0,2) + (0,4) world-sheet supersymmetry and show that a geometric vacuum must be described by a principal two-torus bundle over a K3 manifold.
The scattering amplitudes of gauge bosons in heterotic and open superstring theories are related by the single-valued projection which yields heterotic amplitudes by selecting a subset of multiple zeta value coefficients in the $α'$ (string tension parameter) expansion of open string amplitudes. In the present work, we argue that this relation holds also at the level of low-energy expansions (or individual Feynman diagrams) of the respective effective actions, by investigating the beta functions of two-dimensional sigma models describing world-sheets of open and heterotic strings. We analyze t…
The single-valued projection (sv) is a relation between scattering amplitudes of gauge bosons in heterotic and open superstring theories. Recently we have studied sv from the aspect of nonlinear sigma models [1], where the gauge physics of open string sigma model is under the Wilson loop representation but the gauge physics of heterotic string sigma model is under the fermionic representation since the Wilson loop representation is absent in the heterotic case. There we showed that the sv comes from a sum of six radial orderings of heterotic vertices on the complex plane. In this paper, we pro…
The sigma model action described in this paper differs in four important features from the usual sigma model action for the four-dimensional Green-Schwarz heterotic superstring in a massless background. Firstly, the action is constructed on an N=(2,0) super-worldsheet using a Kahler potential and an Ogievetsky-Sokatchev constraint; secondly, the target-space background fields are unconstrained; thirdly, the target-space dilaton couples to the two-dimensional curvature; and fourthly, the action reduces in a flat background to a free-field action. A conjecture is made for generalizing this N=(2,…
We explicitly construct massive (0,4) supersymmetric ADHM sigma models which have heterotic p-brane solitons as their conformal fixed points. These yield the familiar gauge 5-brane and a new 1-brane solution which preserve 1/2 and 1/4 of the spacetime supersymmetry respectively. We also discuss an analogous construction for the type II NS-NS p-branes using (4,4) supersymmetric models.
The geometry of (2,1) supersymmetric sigma-models is reviewed and the conditions under which they have isometry symmetries are analysed. Certain potentials are constructed that play an important role in the gauging of such symmetries. The gauged action is found for a special class of models.
The gauging of isometries in general sigma-models which include fermionic terms which represent the interaction of strings with background Yang-Mills fields is considered. Gauging is possible only if certain obstructions are absent. The quantum gauge anomaly is discussed, and the (1,0) supersymmetric generalisation of the gauged action given.
We consider the spectrum of BPS states of the heterotic sigma model with $(0,8)$ supersymmetry and $T^8$ target, as well as its second-quantized counterpart. We show that the counting function for such states is intimately related to Borcherds' automorphic form $Φ_{12}$, a modular form which exhibits automorphy for $O(2,26;{\mathbb Z})$. We comment on possible implications for Umbral moonshine and theories of AdS$_3$ gravity.
The geometry of (2,1) supersymmetric sigma-models with isometry symmetries is discussed. The gauging of such symmetries in superspace is then studied. We find that the coupling to the (2,1) Yang-Mills supermultiplet can be achieved provided certain geometric conditions are satisfied. We construct the general gauged action, using an auxiliary vector to generate the full non-polynomial structure.
The fields of the conjectured ``heterotic" super--fivebrane sigma--model in ten dimensions are made out of a well known gravitational sector, the $X$ and the $\vartheta$, and of a still unknown heterotic sector which should be coupled to the Yang--Mills fields. We compute the one--loop $d=6$ worldvolume and $D=10$ target space Lorentz--anomalies which arise from the gravitational sector of the heterotic super--fivebrane sigma--model, using a method which we developed previously for the Green--Schwarz heterotic superstring. These anomalies turn out to carry an overall coefficient which is $1/2$…
Heterotic String Sigma Models: Discrete Light Cone Quantization and Its Current-Current Deformation
University of Groningen(格罗宁根大学);National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines(菲律宾大学国家物理研究所);Universidad de Murcia(穆尔西亚大学);KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University(瑞典皇家理工学院和斯德哥尔摩大学)
We calculate the beta function of non-linear sigma models with S^{D+1} and AdS_{D+1} target spaces in a 1/D expansion up to order 1/D^2 and to all orders in α'. This beta function encodes partial information about the spacetime effective action for the heterotic string to all orders in α'. We argue that a zero of the beta function, corresponding to a worldsheet CFT with AdS_{D+1} target space, arises from competition between the one-loop and higher-loop terms, similarly to the bosonic and supersymmetric cases studied previously in hep-th/0512355. Various critical exponents of the non-linear si…
Recently, the infinitesimal moduli space of heterotic $G_2$ compactifications was described in supergravity and related to the cohomology of a target space differential. In this paper we identify the marginal deformations of the corresponding heterotic nonlinear sigma model with cohomology classes of a worldsheet BRST operator. This BRST operator is nilpotent if and only if the target space geometry satisfies the heterotic supersymmetry conditions. We relate this to the supergravity approach by showing that the corresponding cohomologies are indeed isomorphic. We work at tree-level in $α'$ per…
We construct a (1,2) heterotic sigma model whose target space geometry consists of a transitive Lie algebroid with complex structure on a Kaehler manifold. We show that, under certain geometrical and topological conditions, there are two distinguished topological half--twists of the heterotic sigma model leading to A and B type half--topological models. Each of these models is characterized by the usual topological BRST operator, stemming from the heterotic (0,2) supersymmetry, and a second BRST operator anticommuting with the former, originating from the (1,0) supersymmetry. These BRST operat…
In this work we attempt to bridge the gap between heterotic orbifold models and Calabi-Yau compactifications using gauged linear sigma models (GLSMs) with (2,0) worldsheet supersymmetry. We associate a specific GLSM to a heterotic orbifold model with twisted states that have non-vanishing vacuum expectation values (VEVs): The charges of the GLSM superfields are essentially determined by the shifted momenta of these states. When a twisted state contains an oscillator excitation, a fermionic gauging is introduced on the worldsheet inducing a non-Abelian gauge bundle, e.g. the standard embedding.…
We study the non-minimal supersymmetric heterotically deformed $\mathcal{N}=(0,2)$ sigma model with the Grassmannian target space $\mathcal{G}_{M,N}$. To develop the appropriate superfield formalism, we begin with a simplified model with flat target space, find its beta function up to two loops, and prove a non-renormalization theorem. Then we generalize the results to the full model with the Grassmannian target space. Using the geometric formulation, we calculate the beta functions and discuss the 't Hooft and Veneziano limits.
Heterotic string compactifications can be conveniently described in the language of (2,0) gauged linear sigma models (GLSMs). Such models allow for Fayet-Iliopoulos (FI)-terms, which can be interpreted as Kahler parameters and axions on the target space geometry. We show that field dependent non-gauge invariant FI-terms lead to a Green-Schwarz-like mechanism on the worldsheet which can be used to cancel worldsheet anomalies. However, given that these FI-terms are constrained by quantization conditions due to worldsheet gauge instantons, the anomaly conditions turn out to be still rather constr…
We consider target space duality transformations for heterotic sigma models and strings away from renormalization group fixed points. By imposing certain consistency requirements between the T-duality symmetry and renormalization group flows, the one loop gauge beta function is uniquely determined, without any diagram calculations. Classical T-duality symmetry is a valid quantum symmetry of the heterotic sigma model, severely constraining its renormalization flows at this one loop order. The issue of heterotic anomalies and their cancelation is addressed from this duality constraining viewpoin…
We construct hybrid linear models in which the chiral anomaly of a gauged linear sigma model is canceled by the classical anomaly of a gauged WZW model. Semi-classically, this corresponds to fibering the WZW model over the naive target space of the sigma model. When the gauge group is abelian, we recover known non-Kahler compactifications; non-abelian models describe novel quasi-geometric flux vacua of the heterotic string.
We study a heterotic two-dimensional N=(0,2) gauged non-linear sigma-model whose target space is a weighted complex projective space. We consider the case with N positively and N^~=N_F - N negatively charged fields. This model is believed to give a description of the low-energy physics of a non-Abelian semi-local vortex in a four-dimensional N=2 supersymmetric U(N) gauge theory with N_F > N matter hypermultiplets. The supersymmetry in the latter theory is broken down to N=1 by a mass term for the adjoint fields. We solve the model in the large-N approximation and explore a two-dimensional subs…
An N=1, d=4 supersymmetric compactification of the perturbative heterotic string is described by a d=2 (0,2) superconformal field theory. The first-order marginal deformations of the internal (0,2) SCFT are in 1 to 1 correspondence with massless gauge-neutral scalars in the spacetime theory. Working at tree-level in the alpha' expansion, we describe these first order deformations for SCFTs with a (0,2) non-linear sigma model description. Our results clarify the structure of deformations of heterotic Calabi-Yau compactifications and more general heterotic flux vacua.
Compactifications of the heterotic string are a viable route to phenomenologically realistic vacua and interesting new mathematics. While supergravity aspects of heterotic compactifications are largely well-understood their worldsheet description remains largely unexplored. We review recent work in developing linear sigma model techniques aimed at elucidating the underlying worldsheet description.
Using mirror symmetry, we resolve an old puzzle in the linear sigma model description of the spacetime Higgs mechanism in a heterotic string compactification with (2,2) worldsheet supersymmetry. The resolution has a nice spacetime interpretation via the normalization of physical fields and suggests that with a little care deformations of the linear sigma model can describe heterotic Higgs branches.
We compute the spectrum of massless gauge singlets in some heterotic string compactifications using Landau-Ginzburg, orbifold and non-linear sigma-model methods. This probes the worldsheet instanton corrections to the quadratic terms in the spacetime superpotential. Previous results predict that some of these states remain massless when instanton effects are included. We find vanishing masses in many cases not covered by these predictions. However, we discover that in the case of the Z-manifold the corrections do not vanish. Despite this, in all the examples studied, we find that the massless …
We review diverse two-dimensional models emerging on the world sheet of non-Abelian strings in the low-energy limit. Non-Abelian strings are supported in a class of four-dimensional bulk theories with or without supersymmetry. In supersymmetric bulk theories we are mostly interested in BPS-saturated strings. Some of these two-dimensional models, in particular, heterotic models, were scarcely studied in the past, if at all. Our main emphasis is on the heterotic N=(0,2) models. We describe their large-N solution. We briefly comment on N=(0,1) models although so far they are not obtained on the t…
A new two dimensional $\mathcal{N}=(0,2)$ Supersymmetric Non-Linear Sigma Model describes the dynamics of internal moduli of the BPS semi-local vortex string supported in four dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ SQED. While the core of these strings is very similar to Abrikosov-Nielsen-Olesen vortices, they are defined with a characteristic size modulus, much like the instanton lump size. This entails that the constituting fields of the vortex do not decay exponentially, as one goes far away from the core of the string, but as a rational function. The appearance of an extra scale in the problem also a…
We study half-twisted linear sigma models relevant to (0,2) compactifications of the heterotic string. Focusing on theories with a (2,2) locus, we examine the linear model parameter space and the dependence of genus zero half-twisted correlators on these parameters. We show that in a class of theories the correlators and parameters separate into A and B types, present techniques to compute the dependence, and apply these to some examples. These results should bear on the mathematics of (0,2) mirror symmetry and the physics of the moduli space and Yukawa couplings in heterotic compactifications…
We find that the conjectured heterotic SO(32) five-brane sigma model develops necessarily k-anomalies, and we investigate their form. We show that these anomalies can be absorbed by modifications of the superspace constraints, that satisfy automatically the modified Bianchi-identity $dH_7=X_8$ of N=1, D=10 supergravity. The k-anomalies induce in particular a quantum deformation of the torsion constraint $T_{αβ}^a=2γ_{αβ}^a$.
Gauged linear sigma models with (0,2) supersymmetry allow a larger choice of couplings than models with (2,2) supersymmetry. We use this freedom to find a fully linear construction of torsional heterotic compactifications, including models with branes. As a non-compact example, we describe a family of metrics which correspond to deformations of the heterotic conifold by turning on H-flux. We then describe compact models which are gauge-invariant only at the quantum level. Our construction gives a generalization of symplectic reduction. The resulting spaces are non-Kahler analogues of familiar …
We present an explicit method for translating between the linear sigma model and the spectral cover description of SU(r) stable bundles over an elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau manifold. We use this to investigate the 4-dimensional duality between (0,2) heterotic and F-theory compactifications. We indirectly find that much interesting heterotic information must be contained in the `spectral bundle' and in its dual description as a gauge theory on multiple F-theory 7-branes. A by-product of these efforts is a method for analyzing semistability and the splitting type of vector bundles over an ell…
We investigate the relation between supersymmetry and geometry for two dimensional sigma models with target spaces of arbitrary signature, and Lorentzian or Euclidean world-sheets. In particular, we consider twisted forms of the two-dimensional $(p,q)$ supersymmetry algebra. Superspace formulations of the $(p,q)$ heterotic sigma-models with twisted or untwisted supersymmetry are given. For the twisted (2,1) and the pseudo-Kähler sigma models, we give extended superspace formulations.
We discuss heterotic strings on Z_2 x Z_2 orbifolds of non factorisable six-tori. Although the number of fixed tori is reduced as compared to the factorisable case, Wilson lines are still needed for the construction of three generation models. An essential new feature is the straightforward appearance of three generation models with one generation per twisted sector. We illustrate our general arguments for the occurrence of that property by an explicit example. Our findings give further support for the conjecture that four dimensional heterotic strings formulated at the free fermionic point ar…
In the framework of (0,2) gauged linear sigma models, we systematically generate sets of perturbatively dual heterotic string compactifications. This target space duality is first derived in non-geometric phases and then translated to the level of GLSMs and its geometric phases. In a landscape analysis, we compare the massless chiral spectra and the dimensions of the moduli spaces. Our study includes geometries given by complete intersections of hypersurfaces in toric varieties equipped with SU(n) vector bundles defined via the monad construction.
We compute the corrections to heterotic-string backgrounds with (2,0) world-sheet supersymmetry, up to two loops in sigma-model perturbation theory. We investigate the conditions for these backgrounds to preserve spacetime supersymmetry and we find that a sufficient requirement for consistency is the applicability of the $\partial\bar\partial$-lemma. In particular, we investigate the $α'$ corrections to (2,0) heterotic-string compactifications and we find that the Calabi-Yau geometry of the internal space is deformed to a Hermitian one. We show that at first order in $α'$, the heterotic anomal…
The ten dimensional string theories as well as eleven dimensional supergravity are conjectured to arise as limits of a more basic theory, traditionaly dubbed M--theory. This notion is confined to the ten dimensional supersymmetric theories. String theory, however, also contains ten dimensional nonsupersymmetric theories that have not been incorporated into this picture. In this note we explore the possibility of generating the low energy spectra of various nonsupersymmetric heterotic string vacua form the Horava--Witten model. We argue that this can be achieved by imposing on the Horava--Witte…
The spinor-vector duality was discovered in free fermionic constructions of the heterotic-string in four dimensions. It played a key role in the construction of heterotic-string models with an anomaly free extra $Z^\prime$ symmetry that may remain unbroken down to low energy scales. A generic signature of the low scale string derived $Z^\prime$ model is via di-photon excess that may be within reach of the LHC. A fascinating possibility is that the spinor-vector duality symmetry is rooted in the structure of the heterotic-string compactifications to two dimensions. The two dimensional heterotic…
We consider non-Abelian BPS-saturated flux tubes (strings) in N=2 supersymmetric QCD deformed by superpotential terms of a special type breaking N=2 supersymmetry down to N=1. Previously it was believed that worldsheet supersymmetry is "accidentally" enhanced due to the facts that N =(1,1) SUSY is automatically elevated up to N=(2,2) on CP(N-1) and, at the same time, there are no N=(0,2) generalizations of the bosonic CP(N-1) model. Edalati and Tong noted that the target space is in fact CP(N-1) x C rather than CP(N-1). This allowed them to suggest a "heterotic" N=(0,2) sigma model, with the C…
Recently it was proposed that the ten dimensional tachyonic superstring vacua may serve as good starting points for the construction of viable phenomenological models. Such phenomenologically viable models enlarge the space of possible string solutions, and may offer novel insight into some of the outstanding problems in string phenomenology. In this paper we present a three generation standard--like model that may be regarded as a compactification of a ten dimensional tachyonic vacuum. We discuss the features of the model as compared to a similar model that may be regarded as compactification…
The computation of $κ$-anomalies in the Green-Schwarz heterotic superstring sigma-model and the corresponding Wess-Zumino consistency condition constitute a powerful alternative approach for the derivation of manifestly supersymmetric string effective actions. With respect to the beta-function approach this technique presents the advantage that a result which is obtained with the computation of beta-functions at $n$ loops can be obtained through the calculation of $κ$-anomalies at \hbox{$n-1$} loops. In this paper we derive by a direct one-loop perturbative computation the $κ$-anomaly associat…
In this thesis are presented two aplications of the sigma model for the superstring in the pure spinor formulation. The first aplication concerns the computation of the one-loop conformal invariance for the type II superstring, resulting in equations of motion written in superspace for the background fields coupled to the superstring. The second application is related to the BRST invariance of the heterotic superstring at the quantum level, which allows to find stringy corrections to the ten-dimensional super Yang-Mills/supergravity constraints.
Compactifications of the heterotic string with NS flux normally require non Calabi-Yau internal spaces which are complex but no longer Kähler. We point out that this conclusion rests on the assumption of a maximally symmetric four-dimensional space-time and can be avoided if this assumption is relaxed. Specifically, it is shown that an internal Calabi-Yau manifold is consistent with the presence of NS flux provided four-dimensional space-time is taken to be a domain wall. These Calabi-Yau domain wall solutions can still be associated with a covariant four-dimensional N=1 supergravity. In this …
We discuss the AdS_3/CFT_2 duality of a heterotic three-charge model with (0,4) target space supersymmetry. The worldsheet theory for heterotic strings on the AdS_3 x S^3/Z_N x T^4 near-horizon geometry was constructed by Kutasov, Larsen and Leigh in [hep-th/9812027]. We propose that the dual conformal field theory is given by a two-dimensional (0,4) sigma model arising on the Higgs branch of an orbifolded ADHM model. As a non-trivial consistency check of the correspondence, we find that the left- and right-moving central charges of the infrared conformal field theory agree with those predicte…
We study the flavor structure in $SO(32)$ heterotic string theory on six-dimensional torus with magnetic fluxes. In particular, we focus on models with the flavor symmetries $SU(3)_f$ and $Δ(27)$. In both models, we can realize the realistic quark masses and mixing angles.
There has been recently a surge of interest in Grand Unified Theories on orbifolds of higher dimensional spaces. In particular, the higher dimensional doublet-triplet splitting mechanism has been of much interest. I revisit the superstring doublet-triplet splitting mechanism in which the color triplets are projected out by the GSO projections, while leaving the electroweak doublets in the physical spectrum. The connection with the higher dimensional theories is elucidated. It is shown that the doublet-triplet splitting depends crucially on the assignment of boundary conditions in the compactif…
We reconsider the question of which Calabi-Yau compactifications of the heterotic string are stable under world-sheet instanton corrections to the effective space-time superpotential. For instance, compactifications described by (0,2) linear sigma models are believed to be stable, suggesting a remarkable cancellation among the instanton effects in these theories. Here, we show that this cancellation follows directly from a residue theorem, whose proof relies only upon the right-moving world-sheet supersymmetries and suitable compactness properties of the (0,2) linear sigma model. Our residue t…
Using Baylor University's C++ software for construction of weakly coupled free fermionic heterotic string models, called the FF Framework, we explicitly construct the level 1 Kač-Moody ten dimensional heterotic string models with the aim of understanding the redundancies endemic to this construction method. We show that for models in any even number of large space-time dimensions with a massless left mover and an odd ordered right mover, the maximal number of space-time supersymmetries are present. We show that in order to produce all of the models for a given order, different basis vectors mu…
We investigate the coset structures which appear in the dimensional reduction of supergravity theories. Especially we investigate how to recognize the global symmetry groups if the coset is non-split. As an example we apply our analysis to the theories emanating from the dimensional reduction of Heterotic supergravity.
In this note we explore the possible marginal deformations of general (0,2) non-linear sigma-models, which arise as descriptions of the weakly-coupled (large radius) limits of four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}= 1$ compactifications of the heterotic string, to lowest order in $α'$ and first order in conformal perturbation theory. The results shed light from the world-sheet perspective on the classical moduli space of such compactifications. This is a contribution to the proceedings of String-Math 2012.
We compute the new supersymmetric index of a large class of N=2 heterotic compactifications with torsion, corresponding to principal two-torus bundles over warped K3 surfaces with H-flux. Starting from a UV description as a (0,2) gauged linear sigma-model with torsion, we use supersymmetric localization techniques to provide an explicit expression of the index as a sum over the Jeffrey-Kirwan residues of the one-loop determinant. We finally propose a geometrical formula that gives the new supersymmetric index in terms of bundle data, regardless of any particular choice of underlying two-dimens…
Two-dimensional sigma models are defined for the new manifestly spacetime supersymmetric description of four-dimensional compactified superstrings. The resulting target-superspace effective action is constrained by the way the spacetime dilaton couples to the worldsheet curvature: For the heterotic superstring, the worldsheet curvature couples to the real part of a chiral multiplet, and for Type II it couples to the real part of the sum of a vector multiplet and a tensor hypermultiplet. For the Type II superstring, this contradicts the standard folklore that only a hypermultiplet counts string…
Exact black hole solutions of the five dimensional heterotic $S$-$T$-$U$ model including all perturbative quantum corrections and preserving $1/2$ of $N=2$ supersymmetry are studied. It is shown that the quantum corrections yield a bound on electric charges and harmonic functions of the solutions.
A two dimensional anomaly cancellation argument is used to construct the SO(32) heterotic and type IIB membranes. By imposing different boundary conditions at the two boundaries of a membrane, we shift all of the two dimensional anomaly to one of the boundaries. The topology of these membranes is that of a 2-dimensional cone propagating in the 11-dimensional target space. Dimensional reduction of these membranes yields the SO(32) heterotic and type IIB strings.
We consider four-dimensional charged black-holes occuring in toroidally compactified heterotic string theory, whose ten-dimensional interpretation involves a Kaluza-Klein monopole and a five-brane. We show that these four-dimensional black-holes can be connected to two-dimensional charged heterotic black-holes upon removal of the constants appearing in the harmonic functions associated with the Kaluza-Klein monopole and the five-brane.