No Arabic abstract
Problems of stabilizing moduli of the type--IIB string theory on toroidal orientifolds $T^6/Z_2$, in presence of worldvolume fluxes on various D-branes, are considered. For $Z_2$ actions, introducing either O9 or O3 planes, we rule out the possibility of moduli stabilization in a wide class of models with $mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetry, characterized by the type of fluxes turned on along D-brane worldvolume. Our results, in particular, imply that Abelian worldvolume fluxes can not by themselves stabilize closed string moduli, in a consistent supersymmtric model, for above orientifold compactifications. We also discuss other $Z_2$ orientifolds of $T^6$ and show that certain other brane wrappings are also ruled out by similar consistency requirements. In specific setups we consider examples with D9-branes wrapping on a complex three-torus with its world-volume fluxes taken to be semi-homogeneous bundles and D7-branes wrapping holomorphic four-cycles of the complex three-torus carrying world-volume fluxes.
We investigate flux vacua on a variety of one-parameter Calabi-Yau compactifications, and find many examples that are connected through continuous monodromy transformations. For these, we undertake a detailed analysis of the tunneling dynamics and find that tunneling trajectories typically graze the conifold point---particular 3-cycles are forced to contract during such vacuum transitions. Physically, these transitions arise from the competing effects of minimizing the energy for brane nucleation (facilitating a change in flux), versus the energy cost associated with dynamical changes in the periods of certain Calabi-Yau 3-cycles. We find that tunneling only occurs when warping due to back-reaction from the flux through the shrinking cycle is properly taken into account.
We demonstrate that asymmetric reheating arises in a large ensemble of string compactifications with many axions and gauged dark sectors. This phenomenon may help avoid numerous cosmological problems that may arise if the sectors were reheated democratically. Distributions of couplings are presented for two classes of axion reheatons, both of which exhibit very small couplings to most of the gauge sectors. In one class, ratios of reheating couplings and also preferred gauge groups are frequently determined by local regions in the string geometry.
Besides the string scale, string theory has no parameter except some quantized flux values; and the string theory Landscape is generated by scanning over discrete values of all the flux parameters present. We propose that a typical (normalized) probability distribution $P({cal Q})$ of a physical quantity $cal Q$ (with nonnegative dimension) tends to peak (diverge) at ${cal Q}=0$ as a signature of string theory. In the Racetrack Kahler uplift model, where $P(Lambda)$ of the cosmological constant $Lambda$ peaks sharply at $Lambda=0$, the electroweak scale (not the electroweak model) naturally emerges when the median $Lambda$ is matched to the observed value. We check the robustness of this scenario. In a bottom-up approach, we find that the observed quark and charged lepton masses are consistent with the same probabilistic philosophy, with distribution $P(m)$ that diverges at $m=0$, with the same (or almost the same) degree of divergence. This suggests that the Standard Model has an underlying string theory description, and yields relations among the fermion masses, albeit in a probabilistic approach (very different from the usual sense). Along this line of reasoning, the normal hierarchy of neutrino masses is clearly preferred over the inverted hierarchy, and the sum of the neutrino masses is predicted to be $sum m_{ u} simeq 0.0592$ eV, with an upper bound $sum m_{ u} <0.066$ eV. This illustrates a novel way string theory can be applied to particle physics phenomenology.
An earlier paper points out that a quantum treatment of the string landscape is necessary. It suggests that the wavefunction of the universe is mobile in the landscape until the universe reaches a meta-stable site with its cosmological constant $Lambda_0$ smaller than the critical value $Lambda_c$, where $Lambda_c$ is estimated to be exponentially small compared to the Planck scale. Since this site has an exponentially long lifetime, it may well be todays universe. We investigate specific scenarios based on this quantum diffusion property of the cosmic landscape and find a plausible scenario for the early universe. In the last fast tunneling to the $Lambda_0$ ($<Lambda_c$) site in this scenario, all energies are stored in the nucleation bubble walls, which are released to radiation only after bubble collisions and thermalization. So the $Lambda_0$ site is chosen even if $Lambda_0$ plus radiation is larger than $Lambda_c$, as long as the radiation does not destabilize the $Lambda_0$ vacuum. A consequence is that inflation must happen before this last fast tunneling, so the inflationary scenario that emerges naturally is extended brane inflation, where the brane motion includes a combination of rolling, fast tunnelings, slow-roll, hopping and percolation in the landscape. We point out that, in the brane world, radiation during nucleosynthesis are mostly on the standard model branes (brane radiation, as opposed to radiation in the bulk). This distinction may lead to interesting dynamics. We consider this paper as a road map for future investigations.
Leptoquarks extending the Standard Model (SM) are attracting an increasing attention in the recent literature. Hence, the identification of 4D SM-like models and the classification of allowed leptoquarks from strings is an important step in the study of string phenomenology. We perform the most extensive search for SM-like models from the non-supersymmetric heterotic string $mathrm{SO}(16)timesmathrm{SO}(16)$, resulting in more than 170,000 inequivalent promising string models from 138 Abelian toroidal orbifolds. We explore the 4D massless particle spectra of these models in order to identify all exotics beside the three generations of quarks and leptons. Hereby, we learn which leptoquark can be realized in this string setup. Moreover, we analyze the number of SM Higgs doublets which is generically larger than one. Then, we identify SM-like models with a minimal particle content. These so-called almost SM models appear most frequently in the orbifold geometries $mathbb Z_2timesmathbb Z_4$ (2,4) and (1,6). Finally, we apply machine learning to our dataset in order to predict the orbifold geometry where a given particle spectrum can be found most likely.