Vacuum Stability in Heterotic M-Theory

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that in heterotic M-theory, all moduli can be stabilized within a phenomenologically acceptable range through non-perturbative effects, resulting in a stable vacuum with negative cosmological constant.

Contribution

It shows that all geometric, vector bundle, and five-brane moduli are fully stabilized by non-perturbative physics in heterotic M-theory, including fluxes and instanton effects.

Findings

All moduli are fixed within a phenomenologically acceptable range.

The stable vacuum has a negative cosmological constant.

Potential for uplifting to a positive cosmological constant is discussed.

Abstract

The problem of the stabilization of moduli is discussed within the context of compactified strongly coupled heterotic string theory. It is shown that all geometric, vector bundle and five-brane moduli are completely fixed, within a phenomenologically acceptable range, by non-perturbative physics. This result requires, in addition to the full space of moduli, non-vanishing Neveu-Schwarz flux, gaugino condensation with threshold corrections and the explicit form of the Pfaffians in string instanton superpotentials. The stable vacuum presented here has a negative cosmological constant. The possibility of ``lifting'' this to a metastable vacuum with positive cosmological constant is briefly discussed.