Partial breaking of supersymmetry, open strings and M-theory

We study total and partial supersymmetry breaking by freely acting orbifolds, or equivalently by Scherk-Schwarz compactifications, in type I string theory. In particular, we describe a four-dimensional chiral compactification with spontaneously broken N = 1 supersymmetry, some models with partial N = 4 --> N = 2 and N = 4 --> N = 1 supersymmetry breaking and their heterotic and M-theory duals. A generic feature of these models is that in the gravitational sector and in the spectrum of D-branes parallel to the breaking coordinate, all mass splittings are proportional to the compactification scale, while global (extended) supersymmetry remains unbroken at tree level for the massless excitations of D-branes transverse to the breaking direction. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.