We consider heterotic string backgrounds in four-dimensional Minkowski space, where N=1 supersymmetry is spontaneously broken at a low scale m_{ 3/2} by a stringy Scherk-Schwarz mechanism. We review how the effective gauge couplings at 1-loop may evade the "decompactification problem", namely the proportionality of the gauge threshold corrections, with the large volume of the compact space involved in the supersymmetry breaking.
Categories: hep-th hep-ph