Supersymmetry breaking and soft terms in M-theory

We investigate gaugino condensation in the framework of the strongly coupled heterotic E-8 x E-8 string (M-theory). Supersymmetry is broken in a hidden sector and gravitational interactions induce soft breaking parameters in the observable sector. The resulting soft masses are of order of the gravitino mass. The situation is similar to that in the weakly coupled E-8 x E-8 theory with one important difference: we avoid the problem of small gaugino masses which are now comparable to the gravitino mass. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.