Universality in radiative corrections for non-supersymmetric heterotic vacua

Properties of moduli-dependent gauge threshold corrections in non-supersymmetric heterotic vacua are reviewed. In the absence of space-time supersymmetry these amplitudes are no longer protected and receive contributions from the whole tower of string states, BPS and not. Never-theless, the difference of gauge thresholds for non-Abelian gauge groups displays a remarkable universality property, even when supersymmetry is absent. We present a simple heterotic construction that shares this universal behaviour and expose the necessary conditions on the super-symmetry breaking mechanism for universality to occur.