Ads Vacua from Dilaton Tadpoles and Form Fluxes

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Ads Vacua from Dilaton Tadpoles and Form Fluxes Physics Letters B 768 (2017) 92–96 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Physics Letters B www.elsevier.com/locate/physletb AdS vacua from dilaton tadpoles and form fluxes ∗ J. Mourad a, A. Sagnotti b, a APC, UMR 7164-CNRS, Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7, 10 rue Alice Domon et L´eonie Duquet, 75205 Paris Cedex 13, France b Scuola Normale Superiore and INFN, Piazza dei Cavalieri, 7, 56126 Pisa, Italy a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: We describe how unbounded three-form fluxes can lead to families of AdS3 × S7 vacua, with constant Received 27 December 2016 dilaton profiles, in the USp(32) model with “brane supersymmetry breaking” and in the U (32) 0’B model, Received in revised form 14 February 2017 if their (projective-)disk dilaton tadpoles are taken into account. We also describe how, in the SO(16) × Accepted 21 February 2017 SO(16) heterotic model, if the torus vacuum energy is taken into account, unbounded seven-form Available online 28 February 2017 fluxes can support similar AdS7 × S3 vacua, while unbounded three-form fluxes, when combined with Editor: N. Lambert internal gauge fields, can support AdS3 × S7 vacua, which continue to be available even if is neglected. In addition, special gauge field fluxes can support, in the SO(16) × SO(16) heterotic model, a set of AdSn × S10−n vacua, for all n = 2, .., 8. String loop and α corrections appear under control when large form fluxes are allowed. © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Funded by SCOAP3. 1. Introduction and setup tions of BPS branes and orientifolds. The simplest example of this type is Sugimoto’s model in [7]. Its low-lying closed sector includes Supersymmetry breaking appears typically accompanied, in the graviton, a dilaton, a RR two-form potential, a Majorana–Weyl String Theory [1], by the emergence of runaway potentials. The gravitino and a Majorana–Weyl spinor of opposite chiralities, as vacuum is deeply affected by their presence and current string in the type-I superstring. However, in the low-lying open sector tools, which are very powerful when combined with supergrav- there are adjoint vectors of a USp(32) gauge group and fermions ity [2] in the supersymmetric case, become ineffective in front of in the reducible antisymmetric representation, whose singlet plays the resulting redefinitions. These reflect an untamed problem that the role of a goldstino. There is also another non-tachyonic ori- started to surface long ago [3]. entifold, which is not supersymmetric to begin with but whose As in other systems, internal fluxes can make a difference in features are rather similar. It is the 0’B model of [9], whose closed this context, and interesting progress was recently made in [4], sector is purely bosonic and contains, in addition to the bosonic while [5] contains notable earlier results. What we shall present modes of the type-I superstring, an axion and a self-dual four form here bears some similarities to these works, although it originates potential, and whose open sector hosts the vectors of a U (32) from a different line of thought, as we are about to describe. In this gauge group and Fermi modes in the antisymmetric representa- letter, relying on the low-energy effective field theory, we explore tion and its conjugate. Both settings afford a rich family of lower- vacuum solutions in ten-dimensional non-tachyonic models, taking dimensional counterparts [7,10], but here we shall content our- into account the low-lying potentials that are induced when su- selves with the simplest 10D examples. Finally, in the third non- persymmetry is broken or absent altogether. The cases at stake in- tachyonic 10D non-supersymmetric model, of the heterotic type clude two types of orientifold models [6] and the SO(16) × SO(16) [11], the bosonic spectrum describes again gravity, a dilaton and heterotic model. In the first orientifold model, an exponential po- a two-form potential that comes from the NS–NS sector, together × tential results from the (projective-)disk tadpoles that accompany with SO(16) SO(16) gauge fields. These theories are anomaly “brane supersymmetry breaking” [7]. This string-scale mechanism free, but the 0’B model rests on a more complicated, non-factorized reflects the presence, in vacua that host a non-linear realization of Green–Schwarz mechanism, as a wide class of lower-dimensional supersymmetry [8], of the residual tension from non-BPS combina- examples [13,6,9]. A 9D vacuum of Sugimoto’s model was exhibited long ago by Dudas and one of us [12], but it contains singularities and regions of strong coupling. In this note we shall see that form fluxes can * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J. Mourad), [email protected] lead to some smooth symmetric vacua for 10D orientifolds even (A. Sagnotti). in the presence of dilaton tadpoles. Moreover, when large form http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2017.02.053 0370-2693/© 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Funded by SCOAP3. J. Mourad, A. Sagnotti / Physics Letters B 768 (2017) 92–96 93 fluxes are allowed the resulting α and string loop corrections ap- scalar, by arbitrary scale factors A(r) and C(r), and by form-fields pear small. There are AdS3 × S7 solutions of this type for both the proportional to the (p + 1)-dimensional volume element, up to a USp(32) model of [7] and the U (32) 0’B model of [9], and more- second scalar function b(r). Here, however, we shall restrict our over there are similar AdS3 × S7 and AdS7 × S3 solutions for the attention to highly symmetric configurations where both φ and C heterotic SO(16) × SO(16) model. are constant. For gauge fields, non-trivial symmetric profiles exist The low-energy dynamics of the systems of interest is de- in this case for k = 1. The resulting internal spaces are spheres, scribed, in the Einstein frame, by effective Lagrangians of the type whose SO(9 − p) isometries can be identified with correspond- ing orthogonal subgroups of the available gauge groups, USp(32), 1 √ 1 S = d10x −g − R − (∂φ)2 U (32) or SO(16) × SO(16), up to a third scalar function a(r). In 2 2 ˜ i 2k10 detail, given the embedding coordinates y on the internal spheres, T (p) such that y˜ y˜ = 1, the so(9 − p)-valued gauge field configurations 1 −2 β φ 2 − e E H + read 2 (p + 2)! p 2 1 − A = ˜ ˜ T − ˜ ˜ T − e 2 αE φ tr F 2 − TeγE φ , (1.1) ia(r) ydy dy y . (1.4) 4 As we shall see shortly, the solutions resulting from this set of where 2 k2 = (2π)7 and we have set α = 1. These originate from 10 profiles for the different available fields, when they exist, describe the string-frame actions vacua of the AdS × S type. √ A common signature of the 10D USp(32) and U (32) orientifold 1 10 −2φ 2 S = d x − G e − R + 4(∂φ) models is the special value γ = 3 , which reflects the (projective- 2k2 E 2 10 )disk origin of the dilaton potential. In both cases one can turn on 1 −2 β φ 2 Hp+2 form fluxes with p = 1or p = 5, corresponding to two-form − e S H + 2(p + 2)! p 2 potentials or to dual six-form ones, and the preceding discussion implies that 1 − − e 2 αS φ tr F 2 − TeγS φ , (1.2) 4 =−1 (1) =−1 (5) = 1 αE ,βE ,βE . (1.5) 1 4 2 2 and Hp+2 is the field strength of a (p + 1)-form potential Bp+1 that presents itself, in various incarnations, in both heterotic and Moreover, the U (32) model also allows profiles of a four-form orientifold 10D models. Moreover γS =−1for the orientifold mod- potential with self-dual field strength and of an eight-form dual els, where the contribution arises from (projective) disk amplitudes, potential, for which while γS = 0for the SO(16) × SO(16) heterotic model, where the 3 (3) (7) modification arises from the torus amplitude. Hence, γ = for = = E 2 βE 0 ,βE 1 . (1.6) = 5 × orientifold models and γE 2 for the SO(16) SO(16) heterotic Finally, as we have anticipated, in the heterotic SO(16) × SO(16) model. In this last case a symbol would be more appropriate, 5 model γE = , since the dilaton potential originates from the but in eqs. (1.1) and (1.2) we have used T in all cases for brevity. 2 (p) torus level, and one can turn on form fluxes with p = 1or p = 5, The parameters β that enter eqs. (1.1) and (1.2) are related by E with Weyl rescalings to their string-frame counterparts, and βS = 1for the heterotic NS–NS two-form potential of ordinary 10D supergrav- = 1 (1) = 1 (5) =−1 = αE ,β ,β . (1.7) ity [14] while βS 0for the R–R two-form potential present in 4 E 2 E 2 =−1 = 1 orientifold models [15]. Moreover, αE 4 (αS 2 ) for the ori- = 1 = × 2. AdS × S solutions of 10D non-tachyonic models entifold models and αE 4 (αS 1) for the SO(16) SO(16) model.
Recommended publications
  • TASI Lectures on String Compactification, Model Building
    CERN-PH-TH/2005-205 IFT-UAM/CSIC-05-044 TASI lectures on String Compactification, Model Building, and Fluxes Angel M. Uranga TH Unit, CERN, CH-1211 Geneve 23, Switzerland Instituto de F´ısica Te´orica, C-XVI Universidad Aut´onoma de Madrid Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain angel.uranga@cern,ch We review the construction of chiral four-dimensional compactifications of string the- ory with different systems of D-branes, including type IIA intersecting D6-branes and type IIB magnetised D-branes. Such models lead to four-dimensional theories with non-abelian gauge interactions and charged chiral fermions. We discuss the application of these techniques to building of models with spectrum as close as possible to the Stan- dard Model, and review their main phenomenological properties. We finally describe how to implement the tecniques to construct these models in flux compactifications, leading to models with realistic gauge sectors, moduli stabilization and supersymmetry breaking soft terms. Lecture 1. Model building in IIA: Intersecting brane worlds 1 Introduction String theory has the remarkable property that it provides a description of gauge and gravitational interactions in a unified framework consistently at the quantum level. It is this general feature (beyond other beautiful properties of particular string models) that makes this theory interesting as a possible candidate to unify our description of the different particles and interactions in Nature. Now if string theory is indeed realized in Nature, it should be able to lead not just to `gauge interactions' in general, but rather to gauge sectors as rich and intricate as the gauge theory we know as the Standard Model of Particle Physics.
    [Show full text]
  • S-Duality in N=1 Orientifold Scfts
    S-duality in = 1 orientifold SCFTs N Iñaki García Etxebarria 1210.7799, 1307.1701 with B. Heidenreich and T. Wrase and 1506.03090, 1612.00853, 18xx.xxxxx with B. Heidenreich 3 Intro C =Z3 C(dP 1) General Conclusions Montonen-Olive = 4 (S-)duality N Given a 4d = 4 field theory with gauge group G and gauge N coupling τ = θ + i=g2 (*), there is a completely equivalent description with gauge group G and coupling 1/τ (for θ = 0 this _ − is g 1=g). Examples: $ G G_ U(1) U(1) U(N) U(N) SU(N) SU(N)=ZN SO(2N) SO(2N) SO(2N + 1) Sp(2N) Very non-perturbative duality, exchanges electrically charged operators with magnetically charged ones. (*) I will not describe global structure or line operators here. 3 Intro C =Z3 C(dP 1) General Conclusions S-duality u = 1+iτ j(τ) i+τ j j In this representation τ 1/τ is u u. ! − ! − 3 Intro C =Z3 C(dP 1) General Conclusions S-duality in < 4 N Three main ways of generalizing = 4 S-duality: N Trace what relevant susy-breaking deformations do in different duality frames. [Argyres, Intriligator, Leigh, Strassler ’99]... Make a guess [Seiberg ’94]. Identify some higher principle behind = 4 S-duality, and find backgrounds with less susy that followN the same principle. (2; 0) 6d theory on T 2 Riemann surfaces. [Gaiotto ’09], ..., [Gaiotto, Razamat! ’15], [Hanany, Maruyoshi ’15],... Field theory S-duality from IIB S-duality. 3 Intro C =Z3 C(dP 1) General Conclusions Field theories from solitons One way to construct four dimensional field theories from string theory is to build solitons with a four dimensional core.
    [Show full text]
  • Jhep05(2019)105
    Published for SISSA by Springer Received: March 21, 2019 Accepted: May 7, 2019 Published: May 20, 2019 Modular symmetries and the swampland conjectures JHEP05(2019)105 E. Gonzalo,a;b L.E. Ib´a~neza;b and A.M. Urangaa aInstituto de F´ısica Te´orica IFT-UAM/CSIC, C/ Nicol´as Cabrera 13-15, Campus de Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain bDepartamento de F´ısica Te´orica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Aut´onomade Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Abstract: Recent string theory tests of swampland ideas like the distance or the dS conjectures have been performed at weak coupling. Testing these ideas beyond the weak coupling regime remains challenging. We propose to exploit the modular symmetries of the moduli effective action to check swampland constraints beyond perturbation theory. As an example we study the case of heterotic 4d N = 1 compactifications, whose non-perturbative effective action is known to be invariant under modular symmetries acting on the K¨ahler and complex structure moduli, in particular SL(2; Z) T-dualities (or subgroups thereof) for 4d heterotic or orbifold compactifications. Remarkably, in models with non-perturbative superpotentials, the corresponding duality invariant potentials diverge at points at infinite distance in moduli space. The divergence relates to towers of states becoming light, in agreement with the distance conjecture. We discuss specific examples of this behavior based on gaugino condensation in heterotic orbifolds. We show that these examples are dual to compactifications of type I' or Horava-Witten theory, in which the SL(2; Z) acts on the complex structure of an underlying 2-torus, and the tower of light states correspond to D0-branes or M-theory KK modes.
    [Show full text]
  • String Creation and Heterotic–Type I' Duality
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by CERN Document Server hep-th/9711098 HUTP-97/A048 DAMTP-97-119 PUPT-1730 String Creation and Heterotic–Type I’ Duality Oren Bergman a∗, Matthias R. Gaberdiel b† and Gilad Lifschytz c‡ a Lyman Laboratory of Physics Harvard University Cambridge, MA 02138 b Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics Cambridge University Silver Street Cambridge, CB3 9EW U. K. c Joseph Henry Laboratories Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544 November 1997 Abstract The BPS spectrum of type I’ string theory in a generic background is derived using the duality with the nine-dimensional heterotic string theory with Wilson lines. It is shown that the corresponding mass formula has a natural interpretation in terms of type I’, and it is demonstrated that the relevant states in type I’ preserve supersym- metry. By considering certain BPS states for different Wilson lines an independent confirmation of the string creation phenomenon in the D0-D8 system is found. We also comment on the non-perturbative realization of gauge enhancement in type I’, and on the predictions for the quantum mechanics of type I’ D0-branes. ∗E-mail address: [email protected] †E-mail address: [email protected] ‡E-mail address: [email protected] 1 Introduction An interesting phenomenon involving crossing D-branes has recently been discovered [1, 2, 3]. When a Dp-brane and a D(8 − p)-brane that are mutually transverse cross, a fundamental string is created between them. This effect is related by U-duality to the creation of a D3- brane when appropriately oriented Neveu-Schwarz and Dirichlet 5-branes cross [4].
    [Show full text]
  • (^Ggy Heterotic and Type II Orientifold Compactifications on SU(3
    DE06FA418 DEUTSCHES ELEKTRONEN-SYNCHROTRON (^ggy in der HELMHOLTZ-GEMEINSCHAFT DESY-THESIS-2006-016 July 2006 Heterotic and Type II Orientifold Compactifications on SU(3) Structure Manifolds by I. Benmachiche ISSN 1435-8085 NOTKESTRASSE 85 - 22607 HAMBURG DESY behält sich alle Rechte für den Fall der Schutzrechtserteilung und für die wirtschaftliche Verwertung der in diesem Bericht enthaltenen Informationen vor. DESY reserves all rights for commercial use of information included in this report, especially in case of filing application for or grant of patents. To be sure that your reports and preprints are promptly included in the HEP literature database send them to (if possible by air mail): DESY DESY Zentralbibliothek Bibliothek Notkestraße 85 Platanenallee 6 22607 Hamburg 15738Zeuthen Germany Germany Heterotic and type II orientifold compactifications on SU(3) structure manifolds Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades des Departments fur¨ Physik der Universit¨at Hamburg vorgelegt von Iman Benmachiche Hamburg 2006 2 Gutachter der Dissertation: Prof. Dr. J. Louis Jun. Prof. Dr. H. Samtleben Gutachter der Disputation: Prof. Dr. J. Louis Prof. Dr. K. Fredenhagen Datum der Disputation: 11.07.2006 Vorsitzender des Prufungsaussc¨ husses: Prof. Dr. J. Bartels Vorsitzender des Promotionsausschusses: Prof. Dr. G. Huber Dekan der Fakult¨at Mathematik, Informatik und Naturwissenschaften : Prof. Dr. A. Fruh¨ wald Abstract We study the four-dimensional N = 1 effective theories of generic SU(3) structure compactifications in the presence of background fluxes. For heterotic and type IIA/B orientifold theories, the N = 1 characteristic data are determined by a Kaluza-Klein reduction of the fermionic actions. The K¨ahler potentials, superpo- tentials and the D-terms are entirely encoded by geometrical data of the internal manifold.
    [Show full text]
  • Lecture Notes on D-Brane Models with Fluxes
    Lecture Notes on D-brane Models with Fluxes PoS(RTN2005)001 Ralph Blumenhagen∗ Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, Föhringer Ring 6, D-80805 München, GERMANY E-mail: [email protected] This is a set of lecture notes for the RTN Winter School on Strings, Supergravity and Gauge Theories, January 31-February 4 2005, SISSA/ISAS Trieste. On a basic (inevitably sometimes superficial) level, intended to be suitable for students, recent developments in string model build- ing are covered. This includes intersecting D-brane models, flux compactifications, the KKLT scenario and the statistical approach to the string vacuum problem. RTN Winter School on Strings, Supergravity and Gauge Theories 31/1-4/2 2005 SISSA, Trieste, Italy ∗Speaker. Published by SISSA http://pos.sissa.it/ Lecture Notes on D-brane Models with Fluxes Ralph Blumenhagen Contents 1. D-brane models 2 1.1 Gauge fields on D-branes 3 1.2 Orientifolds 4 1.3 Chirality 6 1.4 T-duality 7 1.5 Intersecting D-brane models 7 2. Flux compactifications 9 PoS(RTN2005)001 2.1 New tadpoles 10 2.2 The scalar potential 11 3. The KKLT scenario 12 3.1 AdS minima 13 3.2 dS minima 13 4. Toward realistic brane and flux compactifications 15 4.1 A supersymmetric G3 flux 15 4.2 MSSM like magnetized D-branes 17 5. Statistics of string vacua 18 1. D-brane models It is still a great challenge for string theory to answer the basic question whether it has anything to do with nature. In the framework of string theory this question boils down to whether string theory incorporates the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics at low energies or whether string theory has a vacuum/vacua resembling our world to the degree of accuracy with which it has been measured.
    [Show full text]
  • New Orientifold Weak Coupling Limits in F-Theory
    New Orientifold Weak Coupling Limits in F-theory Paolo Aluffi♣ and Mboyo Esole♠ ♣ Mathematics Department, Florida State University, Tallahassee FL 32306, U.S.A. ♠Jefferson Physical Laboratory, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A. Abstract We present new explicit constructions of weak coupling limits of F-theory generalizing Sen’s construction to elliptic fibrations which are not necessary given in a Weierstrass form. These new constructions allow for an elegant derivation of several brane configurations that do not occur within the original framework of Sen’s limit, or which would require complicated geometric tuning or break supersymmetry. Our approach is streamlined by first deriving a simple geometric interpretation of Sen’s weak coupling limit. This leads to a natural way of organizing all such limits in terms of transitions from semistable to unstable singular fibers. These constructions provide a new playground for model builders as they enlarge the number of supersymmetric configurations that can be constructed in F-theory. We present several explicit examples for E8, E7 and E6 elliptic fibrations. He thought he saw a Platypus Descending from a train: He looked again, and found it was A split D7-Brane. ‘So sad, alas, so sad!’ he said, ‘That all has been in vain!’1 ♣[email protected][email protected] 1From Matilde Marcolli, The Mad String Theorist’s Song. 1 Contents 1. Introduction 2 1.1. Sen’s weak coupling limit 3 1.2. The need for new weak coupling limits 5 1.3. Moving away from Weierstrass models 6 1.4. Geometrization of Sen’s weak coupling limit 7 1.5.
    [Show full text]
  • Non-Supersymmetric Seiberg Duality, Orientifold QCD and Non-Critical Strings
    CPHT-RR165.1207 Non-Supersymmetric Seiberg Duality, Orientifold QCD and Non-Critical Strings ♮ Adi Armoni,† Dan Israël,‡ Gregory Moraitis † and Vasilis Niarchos § † Department of Physics, Swansea University Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK ‡ GRECO, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, 98bis Bd Arago, 75014 Paris, France Unité mixte de Recherche 7095, CNRS – Université Pierre et Marie Curie ♮ Centre de Physique Théorique, École Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau, France Unité mixte de Recherche 7644, CNRS We propose an electric-magnetic duality and conjecture an exact conformal window for a class of non-supersymmetric U(Nc) gauge theories with fermions in the (anti)symmetric representation of the gauge group and Nf additional scalar and fermion flavors. The duality exchanges N N N 4 leaving N invariant, and has common features with Seiberg c → f − c ∓ f duality in =1 SQCD with SU or SO/Sp gauge group. At large N the duality holds due to N planar equivalence with =1 SQCD. At finite N we embed these gauge theories in a setup arXiv:0801.0762v1 [hep-th] 7 Jan 2008 N with D-branes and orientifolds in a non-supersymmetric, but tachyon-free, non-critical type 0B string theory and argue in favor of the duality in terms of boundary and crosscap state monodromies as in analogous supersymmetric situations. One can verify explicitly that the resulting duals have matching global anomalies. Finally, we comment on the moduli space of these gauge theories and discuss other potential non-supersymmetric examples that could exhibit similar dualities. January, 2008 §[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Contents 1.
    [Show full text]
  • F-Theory Uplifts and Guts
    MPP-2009-66 SLAC-PUB-13654 F-theory Uplifts and GUTs Ralph Blumenhagen1, Thomas W. Grimm2, Benjamin Jurke1 and Timo Weigand3 1 Max-Planck-Institut f¨ur Physik, F¨ohringer Ring 6, 80805 M¨unchen, Germany 2 Bethe Center for Theoretical Physics and Physikalisches Institut der Universit¨at Bonn, Nussallee 12, 53115 Bonn, Germany 3 SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA Abstract We study the F-theory uplift of Type IIB orientifold models on compact Calabi-Yau threefolds containing divisors which are del Pezzo surfaces. We consider two examples defined via del Pezzo transitions of the quintic. The first model has an orientifold projection leading to two disjoint O7-planes and the second involution acts via an exchange of two del Pezzo surfaces. The two uplifted fourfolds are generically singular with minimal gauge enhancements over a divisor and, respectively, a curve in the non-Fano base. We study possible further degenerations of the elliptic fiber leading to F-theory GUT models based on subgroups of E8. 1 Work supported in part by US Department of Energy contract DE-AC02-76SF00515. 1 Introduction Grand unified theories (GUTs) provide a beautiful field theoretic proposal for physics beyond the weak scale. It is thus natural to investigate whether one can embed supersymmetric GUTs into string theory. This has been a challenging question throughout the history of string theory. It was noticed as early as in the mid eighties that the ten-dimensional perturbative E8 E8 heterotic string naturally incorporates GUT gauge groups like SU(5) and SO×(10) upon compact- ification to four flat dimensions together with the desired matter particle content and (Yukawa) couplings.
    [Show full text]
  • Lecture 1. Model Building in IIA: Intersecting Brane Worlds
    Compactification, Model Building, and Fluxes Angel M. Uranga IFT, Madrid, and CERN, Geneva Lecture 1. Model building in IIA: Intersecting brane worlds We review the construction of chiral four-dimensional compactifications of type IIA string theory with intersecting D6-branes. Such models lead to four-dimensional the- ories with non-abelian gauge interactions and charged chiral fermions. We discuss the application of these techniques to building of models with spectrum as close as possible to the Standard Model, and review their main phenomenological properties. 1Introduction String theory has the remarkable property that it provides a description of gauge and gravitational interactions in a unified framework consistently at the quantum level. It is this general feature (beyond other beautiful properties of particular string models) that makes this theory interesting as a possible candidate to unify our description of the different particles and interactions in Nature. Now if string theory is indeed realized in Nature, it should be able to lead not just to ‘gauge interactions’ in general, but rather to gauge sectors as rich and intricate as the gauge theory we know as the Standard Model of Particle Physics. In these lecture we describe compactifications of string theory where sets of D-branes lead to gauge sectors close to the Standard Model. We furthermore discuss the interplay of such D-brane systems with flux compactifications, recently introduced to address the issues of moduli stabilization and supersymmetry breaking. Before starting, it is important to emphasize that there are other constructions in string theory which are candidates to reproduce the physics of the Standard Model at low energies, which do not involve D-branes.
    [Show full text]
  • M-Theory and Orientifolds
    Prepared for submission to JHEP M-Theory and Orientifolds Andreas P. Braun Department of Mathematical Sciences, Durham University, Lower Mountjoy, Stockton Rd, Durham DH1 3LE, UK E-mail: durham.ac.uk:andreas.braun Abstract: We construct the M-Theory lifts of type IIA orientifolds based on K3-fibred Calabi-Yau threefolds with compatible involutions. Such orientifolds are shown to lift to M-Theory on twisted connected sum G2 manifolds. Beautifully, the two building blocks forming the G2 manifold correspond to the open and closed string sectors. As an appli- cation, we show how to use such lifts to explicitly study open string moduli. Finally, we use our analysis to construct examples of G2 manifolds with different inequivalent TCS realizations. ArXiv ePrint: 1912.06072 arXiv:1912.06072v2 [hep-th] 5 Sep 2020 Contents 1 Introduction1 2 Lifting IIA Orientifolds to TCS G2 Manifolds3 2.1 Review of IIA orientifolds and their M-Theory Lifts3 2.2 IIA Orientifolds which lift to TCS G2 Manifolds6 2.3 The TCS G2 Lift of IIA Orientifolds8 2.3.1 Resolution of TCS and Match of Degrees of Freedom 10 2.4 Example 13 2.4.1 The type IIA Model 13 2.4.2 The TCS M-Theory Lift 14 2.5 The Weak Coupling Limit of M-Theory on TCS G2 Manifolds 16 3 Open String Moduli 17 3.1 Deforming X+ 18 3.2 Deformations of X+ as D6 Moduli 19 3.3 An Example 21 4 G2 Manifolds with Multiple TCS Decompositions 22 4.1 Example 1 23 4.2 Example 2 24 5 Discussion and Future Directions 25 A TCS G2 Manifolds 28 B Acyl Calabi-Yau Manifolds, Tops, and Anti-holomorphic Involutions 29 C Nikulin Involutions and Voisin-Borcea Threefolds 31 1 Introduction The lift of type IIB orientifolds with O7−-planes to F-Theory [1,2] is by now a classic result.1 For a Calabi-Yau threefold X and a holomorphic involution fixing a divisor on X, there is an associated IIB orientifold with locally cancelled Ramond-Ramond seven-brane charge that is lifted to F-Theory on the Calabi-Yau orbifold 2 Y = X × T =Z2 : (1.1) 1See [3,4] for the F-Theory lift of O7 +-planes.
    [Show full text]
  • Supersymmetric ZN × ZM Orientifolds in 4D with D-Branes at Angles
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by CERN Document Server hep-th/0008250 Z Z Supersymmetric N M Orientifolds in 4D with D-Branes× at Angles Stefan F¨orste, Gabriele Honecker and Ralph Schreyer Physikalisches Institut, Universit¨at Bonn Nussallee 12, D-53115 Bonn, Germany Abstract We construct orientifolds of type IIA string theory. The theory is compactified on a 6 T =ZN ZM orbifold. In addition worldsheet parity in combination with a reflection of three compact×directions is modded out. Tadpole cancellation requires to add D-6-branes at angles. The resulting four dimensional theories are = 1 supersymmetric and non-chiral. N 1 Introduction One of the major issues in string theory is to classify consistent theories in especially 3+1 dimensions. Insights into strong coupling regions of string theory provide reasons to hope that apparently different models are actually equivalent and can be mapped onto each other by duality transformations. Often, strong and weak coupling regions are interchanged in this pro- cess. Open strings with Dirichlet boundary conditions e.g. provide a perturbative description of solitonic (non-perturbative) objects (D-p-branes) in type II string theories[1]. This observation was crucial for one of the first conjectures about string dualities - the heterotic/type I duality[2]. Since compactifications of the heterotic string are of particular phenomenological interest one expects the same for type I compactifications. Here, one typically starts with a type II the- ory on an orbifold. In addition, worldsheet parity (possibly combined with discrete targetspace transformations) is modded out. The consistency requirement of modular invariance is replaced by tadpole cancellation conditions.
    [Show full text]