A superstring theory underview

The author gives a brief survey of the current status of superstring phenomenology, with an emphasis on the (currently unrealized) possibility of obtaining model-independent results. Far below the Planck scale, strings appear to be pointlike, and string theory reduces to some effective field theory. At energies around 100 GeV this field theory should in turn reduce to approximately the standard model, if string theory is to describe experimental reality. At these energies, any predictions of string theory are therefore indirect, and can be summarized as predictions of the 18 or so input parameters of the standard model (or more accurately, explanations of those parameters that have already been measured), plus predictions of possible field theory extensions of the standard model and the parameters therein. Currently, string predictions also involve the rather arbitrary selection of a candidate string vacuum, or ground state, from a large set of degenerate vacua. Each such choice leads to a different effective field theory, and hence to a different model for physics at 100 GeV. Here the author describes the set of string vacua, and the prospects for obtaining model-independent predictions from string theory, and also (very briefly) summarize a few recent attempts to construct specific quasi-realistic models. 40 refs., 9 figs