Ten Dimensional Heterotic String as a Soliton

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the heterotic string can be realized as a soliton within the ten-dimensional type I superstring framework, revealing new insights into string dualities and solitonic structures.

Contribution

It shows the heterotic string emerges as a soliton in type I theory, with detailed worldsheet descriptions of its zero modes and gauge structure.

Findings

Heterotic string appears as a soliton in type I superstring

The soliton's collective coordinates include a chiral worldsheet theory

Stable loops of the solitonic string match duality requirements

Abstract

It is shown that the heterotic string emerges as a soliton in the type I superstring theory in ten dimensions. The collective coordinates of the soliton are described by a smooth, chiral worldsheet theory. There are eight bosonic and eight right-moving fermionic zero modes that arise from the partially broken supertranslations. In addition, there are 496 charged bosonic zero modes of the gauge field that describe a left-moving WZNW model on a $spin(32)/{Z_2}$ group manifold. Small, stable loops of the solitonic string furnish the massive states required by duality that transform as spinors of $spin(32)$.