On tadpoles and vacuum redefinitions in String Theory

Tadpoles accompany, in one form or another, all attempts to realize supersymmetry breaking in String Theory, making the present constructions at best incomplete. Whereas these tadpoles are typically large, a closer look at the problem from a perturbative viewpoint has the potential of illuminating at least some of its qualitative features in String Theory. A possible scheme to this effect was proposed long ago by Fischler and Susskind, but incorporating background redefinitions in string amplitudes in a systematic fashion has long proved very difficult. In the first part of this paper, drawing from field theory examples, we thus begin to explore what one can learn by working perturbatively in a ``wrong'' vacuum. While unnatural in Field Theory, this procedure presents evident advantages in String Theory, whose definition in curved backgrounds is mostly beyond reach at the present time. At the field theory level, we also identify and characterize some special choices of vacua where tadpole resummations terminate after a few contributions. In the second part we present a notable example where vacuum redefinitions can be dealt with to some extent at the full string level, providing some evidence for a new link between IIB and 0B orientifolds. We finally show that NS-NS tadpoles do not manifest themselves to lowest order in certain classes of string constructions with broken supersymmetry and parallel branes, including brane-antibrane pairs and brane supersymmetry breaking models, that therefore have UV finite threshold corrections at one loop.Comment: 51 pages, LaTeX, 7 eps figures. Typos corrected, refs added. Final version to appear in Nucl. Phys. B. Thanks to W. Mueck for very interesting correspondence. v3 was accidentally in draft forma

D=6, N=1 String Vacua and Duality

We review the structure $D=6, N=1$ string vacua with emphasis on the different connections due to T-dualities and S-dualities. The topics discussed include: Anomaly cancellation; K3 and orbifold $D=6, N=1$ heterotic compactifications; T-dualities between $E_8\times E_8$ and $Spin(32)/Z_2$ heterotic vacua; non-perturbative heterotic vacua and small instantons; N=2 Type-II/Heterotic duality in D=4 ; F-theory/heterotic duality in D=6; and heterotic/heterotic duality in six and four dimensions.Comment: 52 pages, plain Latex. To appear in the proceedings of the APCTP Winter School on Duality, Mt. Sorak (Korea), February 199

(In)equivalence of metric-affine and metric effective field theories

In a geometrical approach to gravity the metric and the (gravitational) connection can be independent and one deals with metric-affine theories. We construct the most general action of metric-affine effective field theories, including a generic matter sector, where the connection does not carry additional dynamical fields. Among other things, this helps in identifying the complement set of effective field theories where there are other dynamical fields, which can have an interesting phenomenology. Within the latter set, we study in detail a vast class where the Holst invariant (the contraction of the curvature with the Levi-Civita antisymmetric tensor) is a dynamical pseudoscalar. In the Einstein-Cartan case (where the connection is metric compatible and fermions can be introduced) we also comment on the possible phenomenological role of dynamical dark photons from torsion and compute interactions of the above-mentioned pseudoscalar with a generic matter sector and the metric. Finally, we show that in an arbitrary realistic metric-affine theory featuring a generic matter sector the equivalence principle always emerges at low energies without the need to postulate it

Orientifolds of type IIA strings on Calabi-Yau manifolds

We identify type IIA orientifolds that are dual to M-theory compactifications on manifolds with G_2-holonomy. We then discuss the construction of crosscap states in Gepner models. (Based on a talk presented by S.G. at PASCOS 2003 held at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai during Jan. 3-8, 2003.)Comment: 3 pages, RevTeX, PASCOS '03 tal

The Open Descendants of Non-Diagonal SU(2) WZW Models

We extend the construction of open descendants to the $SU(2)$ WZW models with non-diagonal left-right pairing, namely $E_7$ and the $D_{odd}$ series in the $ADE$ classification of Cappelli, Itzykson and Zuber. The structure of the resulting models is determined to a large extent by the ``crosscap constraint'', while their Chan-Paton charge sectors may be embedded in a general fashion into those of the corresponding diagonal models.Comment: 14 pages, latex, 1 figur

Completeness Conditions for Boundary Operators in 2D Conformal Field Theory

In non-diagonal conformal models, the boundary fields are not directly related to the bulk spectrum. We illustrate some of their features by completing previous work of Lewellen on sewing constraints for conformal theories in the presence of boundaries. As a result, we include additional open sectors in the descendants of $D_{odd}$ $SU(2)$ WZW models. A new phenomenon emerges, the appearance of multiplicities and fixed-point ambiguities in the boundary algebra not inherited from the closed sector. We conclude by deriving a set of polynomial equations, similar to those satisfied by the fusion-rule coefficients $N_{ij}^k$, for a new tensor $A_{a b}^i$ that determines the open spectrum.Comment: 13 pages, Latex, 3 figure

Magnetized Four-Dimensional Z2×Z2Z_2 \times Z_2 Orientifolds

We study deformations of $Z_2 \times Z_2$ (shift-)orientifolds in four dimensions in the presence of both uniform Abelian internal magnetic fields and quantized NS-NS $B_{ab}$ backgrounds, that are shown to be equivalent to asymmetric shift-orbifold projections. These models are related by $T$-duality to orientifolds with $D$-branes intersecting at angles. As in corresponding six-dimensional examples, $D9$-branes magnetized along two internal directions acquire a charge with respect to the R-R six form, contributing to the tadpole of the orthogonal $D5$-branes (``brane transmutation''). The resulting models exhibit rank reduction of the gauge group and multiple matter families, due both to the quantized $B_{ab}$ and to the background magnetic fields. Moreover, the low-energy spectra are chiral and anomaly free if additional $D5$-branes longitudinal to the magnetized directions are present, and if there are no Ramond-Ramond tadpoles in the corresponding twisted sectors of the undeformed models.Comment: LaTeX file, 81 pages, 1 figure. 2 references adde

Intersecting D-Branes on Shift Z2 x Z2 Orientifolds

We investigate Z2 x Z2 orientifolds with group actions involving shifts. A complete classification of possible geometries is presented where also previous work by other authors is included in a unified framework from an intersecting D-brane perspective. In particular, we show that the additional shifts not only determine the topology of the orbifold but also independently the presence of orientifold planes. In the second part, we work out in detail a basis of homological three cycles on shift Z2 x Z2 orientifolds and construct all possible fractional D-branes including rigid ones. A Pati-Salam type model with no open-string moduli in the visible sector is presented.Comment: 36 pages, 4 figures, refs. adde

WZW orientifolds and finite group cohomology

The simplest orientifolds of the WZW models are obtained by gauging a Z_2 symmetry group generated by a combined involution of the target Lie group G and of the worldsheet. The action of the involution on the target is by a twisted inversion g \mapsto (\zeta g)^{-1}, where \zeta is an element of the center of G. It reverses the sign of the Kalb-Ramond torsion field H given by a bi-invariant closed 3-form on G. The action on the worldsheet reverses its orientation. An unambiguous definition of Feynman amplitudes of the orientifold theory requires a choice of a gerbe with curvature H on the target group G, together with a so-called Jandl structure introduced in hep-th/0512283. More generally, one may gauge orientifold symmetry groups \Gamma = Z_2 \ltimes Z that combine the Z_2-action described above with the target symmetry induced by a subgroup Z of the center of G. To define the orientifold theory in such a situation, one needs a gerbe on G with a Z-equivariant Jandl structure. We reduce the study of the existence of such structures and of their inequivalent choices to a problem in group-\Gamma cohomology that we solve for all simple simply-connected compact Lie groups G and all orientifold groups \Gamma = Z_2 \ltimes Z.Comment: 48+1 pages, 11 figure