String Universality

Abstract

If there is a single underlying "theory of everything" which in some limits of its "moduli space" reduces to the five weakly coupled string theories in 10D, and 11D SUGRA, then it is possible that all six of them have some common domain of validity and that they are in the same universality class, in the sense that the 4D low energy physics of the different theories is the same. We call this notion String Universality. This suggests that the true vacuum of string theory is in a region of moduli space equally far (in some sense) from all perturbative theories, most likely around the self-dual point with respect to duality symmetries connecting them. We estimate stringy non-perturbative effects from wrapped brane instantons in each perturbative theory, show how they are related by dualities, and argue that they are likely to lead to moduli stabilization only around the self-dual point. We argue that moduli stabilization should occur near the string scale, and SUSY breaking should occur at a much lower intermediate scale, and that it originates from different sources. We discuss the problems of moduli stabilization and SUSY breaking in currently popular scenarios, explain why these problems are generic, and discuss how our scenario can evade them. We show that String Universality is not inconsistent with phenomenology but that it is in conflict with some popular versions of brane world scenarios.

48 pages, 1 figure; one reference added

References in corpus (4)

• Brane Supersymmetry Breaking
• Standard-like Models with Broken Supersymmetry from Type I String Vacua
• A Cosmological Mechanism for Stabilizing Moduli
• D-Sphalerons and the Topology of String Configuration Space

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Locally stable non-supersymmetric Minkowski vacua in supergravity
• Moduli potentials in string compactifications with fluxes: mapping the Discretuum
• Supersymmetry, Axions and Cosmology
• On Potentials from Fluxes
• Brane World Scenarios and the Cosmological Constant
• Cosmological stabilization of moduli with steep potentials
• Metastable supergravity vacua with F and D supersymmetry breaking
• Inflationary cosmology in the central region of String/M-theory moduli space
• M-Theory Moduli Space and Cosmology
• Constraints from F and D supersymmetry breaking in general supergravity theories
• Deriving the Inflaton in Compactified M-theory with a De Sitter Vacuum
• Sequestering by global symmetries in Calabi-Yau string models
• Mildly sequestered supergravity models and their realization in string theory