Consistency and Phenomenology of Four-Dimensional Strings

TL;DR

This paper examines the consistency conditions and phenomenological aspects of four-dimensional string models, focusing on anomaly cancellation, gauge coupling unification, and supersymmetry breaking within orbifold constructions.

Contribution

It provides an explicit analysis of target space duality anomaly cancellation and explores phenomenological implications for standard model unification and supersymmetry breaking.

Findings

Target space duality anomalies can be canceled in orbifold models.

String models can unify gauge couplings at high energies.

Phenomenological properties like supersymmetry breaking are consistent with string predictions.

Abstract

Talk given at the 26th Workshop: ``From Superstrings to Supergravity" Erice - Sicily, 5-12 December 1992: In this talk we discuss string consistency requirements on four dimensional string models, namely the cancellation of target space duality anomalies. The analysis is explicitly performed for (hypothetical) orbifold models assuming the massless spectrum of the supersymmetric standard model. In addition, some phenomenological properties of four-dimensional strings, like the unification of the standard model gauge coupling constants and soft supersymmetry breaking parameters, are investigated.