Tree-Level Stability Without Spacetime Fermions: Novel Examples in String Theory

Abstract

Is perturbative stability intimately tied with the existence of spacetime fermions in string theory in more than two dimensions? Type 0'B string theory in ten-dimensional flat space is a rare example of a non-tachyonic, non-supersymmetric string theory with a purely bosonic closed string spectrum. However, all known type 0' constructions exhibit massless NSNS tadpoles signaling the fact that we are not expanding around a true vacuum of the theory. In this note, we are searching for perturbatively stable examples of type 0' string theory without massless tadpoles in backgrounds with a spatially varying dilaton. We present two examples with this property in non-critical string theories that exhibit four- and six-dimensional Poincare invariance. We discuss the D-branes that can be embedded in this context and the type of gauge theories that can be constructed in this manner. We also comment on the embedding of these non-critical models in critical string theories and their holographic (Little String Theory) interpretation and propose a general conjecture for the role of asymptotic supersymmetry in perturbative string theory.

harvmac, 29 pages; v2 minor changes, version to appear in JHEP

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• Attraction to a radiation-like era in early superstring cosmologies
• Orbifold Symmetry Reductions of Massive Boson-Fermion Degeneracy
• Superstring cosmology for N_4 = 1 -> 0 superstring vacua
• Massive Boson-Fermion Degeneracy and the Early Structure of the Universe
• Phases of QCD${}_3$ from Non-SUSY Seiberg Duality and Brane Dynamics
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• Tachyons and Misaligned Supersymmetry in Closed String Vacua
• Phases of $\mathbf{U}({\mathbf{N}}_{\mathbf{c}})$ QCD${}_3$ from Type 0 Strings and Seiberg Duality
• Orientifolds in N=2 Liouville Theory and its Mirror