The (Low-Energy) Physics of the Superstring
Abstract
Superstring theories offer the prospect of a finite unified theory of the four fundamental interactions. However, their implications for low-energy physics are difficult to determine because there must be several stages of symmetry breaking leading from the underlying multidimensional supersymmetric string theory, relevant at the scale of string structure (not more than O(10-32 cm)), to the four-dimensional non-supersymmetric effective field theory relevant for physics at scales probed in the laboratory (not less than O(10-15 cm)). I discuss these stages of compactification, supersymmetry breaking and gauge-symmetry breaking and show how the resulting low-energy theory may closely approximate the observed structure. The implications for the multiplet structure, the masses and the couplings of the observed particle states are considered.
- Publication:
-
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series A
- Pub Date:
- November 1989
- DOI:
- 10.1098/rsta.1989.0084
- Bibcode:
- 1989RSPTA.329..373R