Open Heterotic Strings
High Energy Physics - Theory
2009-11-11 v2
Abstract
We classify potential cosmic strings according to the topological charge measurable outside the string core. We conjecture that in string theory it is this charge that governs the stability of long strings. This would imply that the SO(32) heterotic string can have endpoints, but not the E_8 x E_8 heterotic string. We give various arguments in support of this conclusion.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.hep-th/0510033,
title = {Open Heterotic Strings},
author = {Joseph Polchinski},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/0510033},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
15 pages. v.2: typos, references corrected