STRING VACUA AND ORBIFOLDIZED LG MODELS

Abstract

We investigate how string vacua arise from N=2 superconformal models. In particular, we discuss how Landau-Ginzburg models with appropriate central charge can be orbifol-dized to construct string vacua. We develop techniques to compute the degeneracy and quantum numbers of the ground states of the LG models in the twisted sectors, even for the cases where the underlying LG model is not exactly solvable. This allows us to compute some interesting physical quantities such as the number of generations and anti-generations in the simplest compactification scenarios. The results agree with explicit computations in the cases where LG model is exactly solvable.