The Search for a Realistic Superstring Vacuum

Abstract

Recent progress in understanding heterotic string compactification utilizes abstract algebraic methods. In particular, Gepner has given a prescription for constructing exactly soluble Calabi-Yau compactifications by using N = 2 minimal models. A large class of new N = 2 models, discovered by Kazama & Suzuki, can also be used. Recent progress in understanding N = 2 models and Calabi-Yau spaces by using mathematical techniques of singularity theory improves the prospects of a complete classification. A key question is whether a classical solution can give a reasonable first approximation to the exact quantum ground state even though string theory is strongly coupled and the perturbation expansion diverges.