Superstrings and solitons

Abstract

A low-energy analysis of macroscopic superstrings is presented and various analogies between these superstrings and solitons in supersymmetric theories are discussed. These include the existence of exact multi-string solutions of the low-energy supergravity super-Yang-Mills equations of motion and a Bogomol'nyi bound for the energy per unit length which is saturated by these solutions. Arguments are presented that these features will persist to all orders in α'. The connection between chiral fermion zero modes on the string and partially broken supersymmetry is also discussed.