How Strings Make Do without Supersymmetry: An Introduction to Misaligned Supersymmetry

Abstract

We provide a non-technical introduction to "misaligned supersymmetry", a generic phenomenon in string theory which describes how the arrangement of bosonic and fermionic states at all string energy levels conspires to preserve finite string amplitudes even in the absence of spacetime supersymmetry. Misaligned supersymmetry thus naturally constrains the degree to which spacetime supersymmetry can be broken in string theory while preserving the finiteness of string amplitudes, and explains how the requirements of modular invariance and absence of physical tachyons affect the distribution of states throughout the string spectrum.