Quantum aspects of gauge theories, supersymmetry and unification

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 95.0856

Key words (English)

Superstrings; duality; supersymmetric gauge theories; unification of particle

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: FMRXCT960045

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 4. Frame Research Programme - 10.1 Stimulation of training and mobility

Short description (English)

See abstract

Partners and International Organizations (English)

Coordinator: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (B)

Abstract (English)

In an effort to understand M-theory compactifications, a correct and careful study of M-theory on the interval S1/Z2 was made, including a coherent discussion of anomaly-cancelling terms and of the small interval, low-energy limit which is ten-dimensional E8xE8 N=1 supergravity. Then, the effective supergravity of the Calabi-Yau compactification of M-theory on the interval has been described, and the contributions of the modulus multiplet describing the position of a five-brane along the interval have been found. The resulting effective action suggests an interesting relation to gauge anomalies induced on the five-brane world-volume.

The study of the high-temperature phases of N=4 dual strings has been continued. New exact solutions to the theory with 1/2 supersymmetries were found in generic sectors of the moduli space of the theory. These new BPS solutions which have no instability at any temperature could indicate the existence of partially supersymmetric phases of N=4 strings even at low temperature, in contrast to the standard picture of quantum field theory in which all supersymmetries are broken if temperature is not zero. The existence of these new solutions seems to be a generic feature of theories with spontaneously broken N=1 local supersymmetry, and their implications for low-energy supersymmetric models deserves more investigations.

Various results were also obtained on stable non-BPS branes in type II theories on K3, including the cancellation mechanism of the chiral anomalies, and on aspects of non-commutative Yang-Mills field theory.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 95.0856