Nonsupersymmetric String Solitons

TL;DR

This paper explores nonsupersymmetric string solitons as potential duals to supersymmetric strings, constructing examples with specific worldsheet supersymmetries and analyzing their properties within string theory.

Contribution

It introduces a method to construct nonsupersymmetric string solitons as orbifold solutions in supersymmetric theories, providing explicit three-dimensional examples with critical worldsheet supersymmetries.

Findings

Constructed cosmic string solutions in supersymmetric vacua.

Identified worldsheet actions with (0,2) and (1,1) supersymmetry.

Demonstrated these solutions have the correct massless spectra for heterotic and type II strings.

Abstract

We begin a search for nonsupersymmetric/supersymmetric dual string pairs by constructing candidate critical nonsupersymmetric strings as solitons in supersymmetric string theories. Using orbifold techniques, one can construct cosmic string solutions which lie in supersymmetric vacua but which do not fall in supermultiplets. We discuss two three-dimensional examples in detail. The effective worldsheet actions for the soliton strings have (0,2) and (1,1) supersymmetry and the correct numbers of massless bosons and fermions to be critical heterotic and type II strings, respectively.