Threshold Corrections in Heterotic String Theory from Conformal Perturbation Theory

Abstract

We use conformal perturbation theory to compute one-loop threshold corrections to the Kähler potential of the heterotic string. For this we consider the theory compactified at the Gepner point of the quintic, that is at a highly stringy point of its moduli space. To obtain the corrections, we compute how the weights of the lightest states of the worldsheet theory shift at second order in conformal perturbation theory. This approach can be used to obtain the one-loop correction to all orders in ${\alpha }^{\prime }$.

46 pages. Ancillary Mathematica notebook included