Topics in N = 1 supergravity in four dimensions and superstring effective field theories beyond tree-level

摘要

In this thesis, the author presents some works in the direction of studying quantum effects in locally supersymmetric effective field theories that appear in the low energy limit of superstring theory. After reviewing the Kaehler covariant formulation of supergravity, he shows the calculation of the divergent one-loop contribution to the effective boson Lagrangian for supergravity, including the Yang-Mills sector and the helicity-odd operators that arise from integration over fermion fields. The only restriction is on the Yang-Mills kinetic energy normalization function, which is taken diagonal in gauge indices, as in models obtained from superstrings. He then presents the full result for the divergent one-loop contribution to the effective boson Lagrangian for supergravity coupled to chiral and Yang-Mills supermultiplets. He also considers the specific case of dilaton couplings in effective supergravity Lagrangians from superstrings, for which the one-loop result is considerably simplified. He studies gaugino condensation in the presence of an intermediate mass scale in the hidden sector. S-duality is imposed as an approximate symmetry of the effective supergravity theory. Furthermore, the author includes in the Kaehler potential the renormalization of the gauge coupling and the one-loop threshold corrections at the intermediate scale. It is shown that confinement is indeed achieved. Furthermore, a new running behavior of the dilaton arises which he attributes to S-duality. He also discusses the effects of the intermediate scale, and possible phenomenological implications of this model.