A solution to the decompactification problem in chiral heterotic strings

Abstract

We present a solution to the decompactification problem of gauge thresholds in chiral heterotic string theories with two large extra dimensions, where supersymmetry is spontaneously broken by the Scherk–Schwarz mechanism. Whenever the Kaluza–Klein scale that controls supersymmetry breaking is much lower than the string scale, the infinite towers of heavy states contribute non-trivially to the renormalisation of gauge couplings, which typically grow linearly with the large volume of the internal space and invalidate perturbation theory. We trace the origin of the decompactification problem to properties of the six dimensional theory obtained in the infinite volume limit and show that thresholds may instead exhibit logarithmic volume dependence and we provide the conditions for this to occur. We illustrate this mechanism with explicit string constructions where the decompactification problem does not occur.