Anomaly-free supersymmetric models in six dimensions

Abstract

The conditions for the cancellation of all gauge, gravitational, and mixed anomalies of N = 1 supersymmetric models in six dimensions are reviewed and illustrated by a number of examples. Of particular interest are models that cannot be realized perturbatively in string theory. An example of this type, which we verify satisfies the anomaly cancellation conditions, is the K3 compactification of the SO(32) theory with small instantons recently proposed by Witten. When the instantons coincide it has gauge group SO(32) × Sp(24). Two new classes of models, for which non-perturbative string constructions are not yet known, are also presented. They have gauge groups SO(2 n + 8) × Sp( n) and SU( n) × SU( n), where n is an arbitrary positive integer.