One-loop masses of Neumann-Dirichlet open strings and boundary-changing vertex operators

We derive the masses acquired at one loop by massless scalars in the Neumann-Dirichlet sector of open strings, when supersymmetry is spontaneously broken. It is done by computing two-point functions of “boundary-changing vertex operators” inserted on the boundaries of the annulus and Möbius strip. This requires the evaluation of correlators of “excited boundary-changing fields,” which are analogous to excited twist fields for closed strings. We work in the type IIB orientifold theory compactified on T2× T4/ℤ2, where $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 2 supersymmetry is broken to $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 0 by the Scherk-Schwarz mechanism implemented along T2. Even though the full expression of the squared masses is complicated, it reduces to a very simple form when the lowest scale of the background is the supersymmetry breaking scale M3/2. We use our results to analyze in this regime the stability at the quantum level of the moduli fields arising in the Neumann-Dirichlet sector. This completes the study of ref. [32], where the quantum masses of all other types of moduli arising in the open- or closed-string sectors are derived. Ultimately, we identify all brane configurations that produce backgrounds without tachyons at one loop and yield an effective potential exponentially suppressed, or strictly positive with runaway behavior of M3/2.