DWSB in heterotic flux compactifications

TL;DR

This paper explores the construction of non-supersymmetric vacua in heterotic flux compactifications using domain-wall supersymmetry breaking, analyzing conditions for solutions and providing explicit examples with fluxes, torsion, and condensates.

Contribution

It adapts the DWSB approach to heterotic compactifications, deriving conditions for non-supersymmetric solutions and constructing explicit examples with fluxes and gaugino condensates.

Findings

Identified conditions for non-supersymmetric vacua in heterotic flux compactifications.

Constructed explicit examples using elliptic fibrations.

Analyzed the role of gaugino condensates in SUSY-breaking vacua.

Abstract

We address the construction of non-supersymmetric vacua in heterotic compactifications with intrinsic torsion and background fluxes. In particular, we implement the approach of domain-wall supersymmetry breaking (DWSB) previously developed in the context of type II flux compactifications. This approach is based on considering backgrounds where probe NS5-branes wrapping internal three-cycles and showing up as four-dimensional domain-walls do not develop a BPS bound, while all the other BPS bounds characterizing the N=1 supersymmetric compactifications are preserved at tree-level. Via a scalar potential analysis we provide the conditions for these backgrounds to solve the ten-dimensional equations of motion including order \alpha' corrections. We also consider backgrounds where some of the NS5-domain-walls develop a BPS bound, show their relation to no-scale SUSY-breaking vacua and construct explicit examples via elliptic fibrations. Finally, we consider backgrounds with a non-trivial gaugino condensate and discuss their relation to supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric vacua in the present context.