Decays of near BPS heterotic strings

TL;DR

This paper investigates the decay processes of highly excited heterotic string states, focusing on near BPS states, and calculates their decay rates and spectra, revealing dominant decay channels involving massless radiation.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of decay rates and spectra for near BPS heterotic string states, highlighting the dominant decay channels and their implications.

Findings

Near BPS states have longer lifetimes.

Decay is dominated by massless radiation channels.

Spectrum calculations reveal specific decay characteristics.

Abstract

The decay of highly excited massive string states in compactified heterotic string theories is discussed. We calculate the decay rate and spectrum of states carrying momentum and winding in the compactified direction. The longest lived states in the spectrum are near BPS states whose decay is dominated by a single decay channel of massless radiation which brings the state closer to being BPS.