The Problem of the Stabilization of the Dilaton in String Theories

TL;DR

This paper investigates the challenge of stabilizing the dilaton in string theories, highlighting the necessity of additional contributions to the Kähler potential and discussing implications for soft breaking terms.

Contribution

It demonstrates that dilaton stabilization cannot rely solely on dilaton dynamics without significant perturbative or non-perturbative effects in the Kähler potential.

Findings

Dilaton dominance scenario is inconsistent without extra Kähler potential contributions.

Soft breaking terms predictions become model-dependent without dilaton dominance.

Stable dilaton solutions require non-trivial corrections to the Kähler potential.

Abstract

The crucial problem of how the dilaton field is stabilized at a phenomenologically acceptable value in string theories remains essentially unsolved. We show that the usual scenario of assuming that the dilaton is fixed by the (SUSY breaking) dynamics of just the dilaton itself (dilaton dominance scenario) is {\em inconsistent} unless the K\"ahler potential receives very important perturbative or non-perturbative contributions. Then, the usual predictions about soft breaking terms are lost, but still is possible to derive model-independent predictions for them.