Chiral Four-Dimensional Heterotic Covariant Lattices

In the covariant lattice formalism, chiral four-dimensional heterotic string vacua are obtained from certain even self-dual lattices which completely decompose into a left-mover and a right-mover lattice. The main purpose of this work is to classify all right-mover lattices that can appear in such a chiral model, and to study the corresponding left-mover lattices using the theory of lattice genera. In particular, the Smith-Minkowski-Siegel mass formula is employed to calculate a lower bound on the number of left-mover lattices. Also, the known relationship between asymmetric orbifolds and covariant lattices is considered in the context of our classification.