String theory |
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Fundamental objects |
Perturbative theory |
Non-perturbative results |
Phenomenology |
Mathematics |
In string theory, a heterotic string is a closed string (or loop) which is a hybrid ('heterotic') of a superstring and a bosonic string. There are two kinds of heterotic superstring theories, the heterotic SO(32) and the heterotic E8 × E8, abbreviated to HO and HE. Apart from that there exist seven more heterotic string theories which are not supersymmetric and hence are only of secondary importance in most applications.[1] Heterotic string theory was first developed in 1985 by David Gross, Jeffrey Harvey, Emil Martinec, and Ryan Rohm[2] (the so-called "Princeton string quartet"[3]), in one of the key papers that fueled the first superstring revolution.