Heterotic Strings in Two Dimensions and New Stringy Phase Transitions

Abstract

We discuss heterotic string theories in two dimensions with gauge groups Spin(24) and Spin(8) x E_8. After compactification the theories exhibit a rich spectrum of states with both winding and momentum. At special points some of these stringy states become massless, leading to new first order phase transitions. For example, the thermal theories exhibit standard thermodynamics below the phase transition, but novel and peculiar behavior above it. In particular, when the radius of the Euclidean circle is smaller than the phase transition point the torus partition function is not given by the thermal trace over the spacetime Hilbert space. The full moduli space of compactified theories is 13 dimensional, when Wilson lines are included; the Spin(24) and Spin(8) x E_8 theories correspond to distinct decompactification limits.

32 pages; v2: references added, minor changes

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Cited by in corpus (15)

• Dimension-changing exact solutions of string theory
• Spin-field Interaction Effects and Loop Dynamics in AdS/CFT Duality
• Thermal duality and non-singular cosmology in d-dimensional superstrings
• An Alternative for Moduli Stabilisation
• Thermodynamics and Cosmological Constant of Non-Local Field Theories from p-Adic Strings
• Non-singular string cosmology in a 2d Hybrid model
• Marginal Deformations of Vacua with Massive boson-fermion Degeneracy Symmetry
• Strings at Finite Temperature: Wilson Lines, Free Energies, and the Thermal Landscape
• Long Strings, Anomaly Cancellation, Phase Transitions, T-duality and Locality in the 2d Heterotic String
• Stable Vacua for Tachyonic Strings
• Notes on the algebraic curves in (p,q) minimal string theory
• The Moduli Space and Phase Structure of Heterotic Strings in Two Dimensions
• The S-Matrix of 2D Type 0B String Theory Part 1: Perturbation Theory Revisited
• Non-critical Heterotic Superstrings in Various Dimensions
• Anomaly Cancellation in Noncritical String Theory