String Phenomenology

Abstract

Following Dyson's analogy between the quantum field theory and the 19th-century chemistry-both explain how but not why-one could also establish an analogy between atomic physics and string theory. Atomic physics was needed to answer the question why in chemistry, string theory is trying to answer the question why in the standard model. This attempt is very briefly reviewed in this talk. After discussing the phenomenological aspects of string theory, the study of soft terms is emphasized as a possible connection between theory and experiment. Special attention is paid to the issues of flavor changing neutral currents, loop effects, charge and color breaking minima, and M-theory versus weakly coupled string theory.