Quantum moduli spaces of N=1 string theories.

Abstract

Generically, string models with $N=1$ supersymmetry are not expected to have moduli beyond perturbation theory; stringy nonperturbative effects as well as low energy field-theoretic phenomena such as gluino condensation will lift any flat directions. In this work, we describe models where some subspace of the moduli space survives nonperturbatively. Discrete $R$ symmetries forbid any inherently stringy effects, and dynamical considerations control the field-theoretic effects. The surviving subspace is a space of high symmetry; the system is attracted to this subspace by a potential which we compute. Models of this type may be useful for considerations of duality and raise troubling cosmological questions about string theory. Our considerations also suggest a mechanism for fixing the expectation value of the dilaton.