The Linear Multiplet and Quantum String Effective Actions

Abstract

Quantum symmetries of four-dimensional superstrings are frequently realized in an anomaly-cancellation mode in the effective low-energy supergravity. The massless antisymmetric tensor plays an important rôle in this mechanism and the choice of its supersymmetric description, using either a chiral or a linear multiplet, appears to introduce significant conceptual and practical differences at the string loop level. This paper reviews the construction of loop-corrected string effective supergravities with the dilaton and antisymmetric tensor embedded in a linear multiplet. Using anomaly cancellation and the linear multiplet allows to obtain an all-order renormalization-group invariant effective lagrangian for a pure gauge sector with field-dependent gauge coupling constant. Presented at the Workshop "Physics from Planck Scale to Electroweak Scale", Warsaw, Poland, September 1994.