Temperature Instabilities in N=4 Strings

TL;DR

This paper derives an effective supergravity framework to analyze temperature-induced instabilities in N=4 superstrings, mapping out phase boundaries and high-temperature dynamics in the non-perturbative moduli space.

Contribution

It introduces a novel supergravity-based approach to understand thermal instabilities and phase structure in N=4 superstring theories.

Findings

Boundaries of thermal phases mapped in moduli space

High-temperature heterotic phase dynamics clarified

Effective supergravity description of instabilities developed

Abstract

An effective supergravity description of all instabilities of N_4=4 superstrings is derived. The construction is based on the N_4=4 BPS mass formula at finite temperature and uses the properties of N_4=4 gauged supergravity. It provides the boundaries of the various thermal phases in the non-perturbative moduli space. It also draws a precise picture of the dynamics in the high-temperature heterotic phase. This brief contribution summarizes results obtained in collaboration with I. Antoniadis and C. Kounnas.