Phenomenology of Strongly Coupled Heterotic String Theory

Abstract

This is the text of a talk given at the Inaugural Conference of the Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics, Seoul, Korea, June 9, 1996. If nature is described by string theory, and if the compactification radius is large (as suggested by the unification of couplings), then the theory is in a regime best described by the low energy limit of $M$-theory. We discuss some phenomenological aspects of this view. The scale at which conventional quantum field theory breaks down is of order the unification scale and consequently (approximate) discrete symmetries are essential to prevent proton decay. There are one or more light axions, one of which solves the strong CP problem. Modular cosmology is still problematic but much more complex than in perturbative string vacua.

arXiv commentUses harvmac. Talk which recapitulates hep-th/9605136

References in corpus (3)

• Couplings and Scales in Strongly Coupled Heterotic String Theory
• Coping With Strongly Coupled String Theory
• N=2 Heterotic Superstring and its Dual Theory in Five Dimensions

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• G-Fluxes and Non-Perturbative Stabilisation of Heterotic M-Theory
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• Brane World Susy Breaking from String/M Theory
• The Top 10^{500} Reasons Not to Believe in the Landscape
• Implications of a dilaton in gauge theory and cosmology