Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 The Standard Model and beyond
- 2 Supersymmetry
- 3 Introduction to string theory: the bosonic string
- 4 Superstrings
- 5 Toroidal compactification of superstrings
- 6 Branes and string duality
- 7 Calabi–Yau compactification of heterotic superstrings
- 8 Heterotic string orbifolds and other exact CFT constructions
- 9 Heterotic string compactifications: effective action
- 10 Type IIA orientifolds: intersecting brane worlds
- 11 Type IIB orientifolds
- 12 Type II compactifications: effective action
- 13 String instantons and effective field theory
- 14 Flux compatifications and moduli stabilization
- 15 Moduli stabilization and supersymmetry breaking in string theory
- 16 Further phenomenological properties. Strings and cosmology
- 17 The space of string vacua
- Appendix A Modular functions
- Appendix B Some topological tools
- Appendix C Spectrum and charges of a semi-realistic Z3 heterotic orbifold
- Appendix D Computation of RR tadpoles
- Appendix E CFT toolkit
- Bibliography
- References
- Index
7 - Calabi–Yau compactification of heterotic superstrings
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 The Standard Model and beyond
- 2 Supersymmetry
- 3 Introduction to string theory: the bosonic string
- 4 Superstrings
- 5 Toroidal compactification of superstrings
- 6 Branes and string duality
- 7 Calabi–Yau compactification of heterotic superstrings
- 8 Heterotic string orbifolds and other exact CFT constructions
- 9 Heterotic string compactifications: effective action
- 10 Type IIA orientifolds: intersecting brane worlds
- 11 Type IIB orientifolds
- 12 Type II compactifications: effective action
- 13 String instantons and effective field theory
- 14 Flux compatifications and moduli stabilization
- 15 Moduli stabilization and supersymmetry breaking in string theory
- 16 Further phenomenological properties. Strings and cosmology
- 17 The space of string vacua
- Appendix A Modular functions
- Appendix B Some topological tools
- Appendix C Spectrum and charges of a semi-realistic Z3 heterotic orbifold
- Appendix D Computation of RR tadpoles
- Appendix E CFT toolkit
- Bibliography
- References
- Index
Summary
In Chapter 5 we showed that toroidal compactifications of superstrings can lead at low energies to 4d theories, albeit with too much supersymmetry to allow for chirality, an essential ingredient of particle physics. We will thus be interested in constructing more general classes of compactifications leading to chiral theories in 4d, an enterprise starting in this chapter and reaching until Chapter 12, and for which it is convenient to give an aerial view.
A road map for string compactifications
There are different options to achieve the construction of chiral 4d compactifications in string theory, summarized in Figure 7.1, and roughly classified according to the underlying 10d or 11d theory taken as starting point. In this book we will study in turn heterotic compactifications, type IIA orientifolds and type IIB orientifolds. In this chapter and Chapter 8 we describe different varieties of heterotic string compactifications, whose 4d effective action is studied in Chapter 9. We consider models in the geometric realm, using Calabi–Yau manifolds and toroidal orbifolds, and in the more abstract non-geometric conformal field theory (CFT) framework, using asymmetric orbifolds, free fermions, and Gepner constructions. In Chapter 10 we study type IIA orientifold constructions with gauge fields localized on D6-branes, and matter fields at their intersections. We consider explicit examples in toroidal orbifold compactifications, as well as Gepner constructions. Supersymmetric type IIA models with intersecting D6-branes are related to purely geometric compactifications of M-theory on manifolds with G2 holonomy, as we will also review.
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- Chapter
- Information
- String Theory and Particle PhysicsAn Introduction to String Phenomenology, pp. 185 - 214Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012