ABELIAN LANDAU-GINZBURG ORBIFOLDS AND MIRROR SYMMETRY

We construct a class of heterotic string vacua described by Landau - Ginzburg theories and consider orbifolds of these models with respect to abelian symmetries. For LG vacua described by potentials in which at most three scaling fields are coupled we explicitly construct the chiral ring and discuss its diagonalization with respect to its most general abelian symmetry. For theories with couplings between at most two fields we present results of an explicit construction of the LG potentials and their orbifolds. The emerging space of (2,2) theories shows a remarkable mirror symmetry. It also contains a number of new three-generation models.