Four-Dimensional Effective Supergravity and Soft Terms in M-Theory

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the four-dimensional effective supergravity derived from M-theory, focusing on how soft supersymmetry-breaking terms evolve from the heterotic string limit to the M-theory limit, including higher order corrections.

Contribution

It provides a macroscopic analysis of M-theory's effective supergravity, identifying higher order Kähler potential terms and their relation to heterotic string corrections, and examines soft term patterns across different limits.

Findings

Higher order terms in the Kähler potential are identified and matched with heterotic string corrections.

The pattern of soft supersymmetry-breaking terms is analyzed across the weakly coupled and M-theory limits.

The analysis clarifies how soft terms change with the transition from heterotic string to M-theory.

Abstract

We provide a simple macroscopic analysis of the four-dimensional effective supergravity of the Ho\v{r}ava-Witten M-theory which is expanded in powers of $\kappa^{2/3}/\rho V^{1/3}$ and $\kappa^{2/3}\rho/V^{2/3}$ where $\kappa^2$, $V$ and $\rho$ denote the eleven-dimensional gravitational coupling, the Calabi-Yau volume and the eleventh length respectively. Possible higher order terms in the K\"ahler potential are identified and matched with the heterotic string corrections. In the context of this M-theory expansion, we analyze the soft supersymmetry-breaking terms under the assumption that supersymmetry is spontaneously broken by the auxiliary components of the bulk moduli superfields. It is examined how the pattern of soft terms changes when one moves from the weakly coupled heterotic string limit to the M-theory limit.