No Arabic abstract
Embeddings of the standard model in type II string theory typically contain a variety of U(1) gauge factors arising from D-branes in the bulk. In general, there is no reason why only one of these - the one corresponding to weak hypercharge - should be massless. Observations require that standard model particles must be neutral (or have an extremely small charge) under additional massless U(1)s, i.e. the latter have to belong to a so called hidden sector. The exchange of heavy messengers, however, can lead to a kinetic mixing between the hypercharge and the hidden-sector U(1)s, that is testable with near future experiments. This provides a powerful probe of the hidden sectors and, as a consequence, of the string theory realisation itself. In the present paper, we show, using a variety of methods, how the kinetic mixing can be derived from the underlying type II string compactification, involving supersymmetric and nonsupersymmetric configurations of D-branes, both in large volumes and in warped backgrounds with fluxes. We first demonstrate by explicit example that kinetic mixing occurs in a completely supersymmetric set-up where we can use conformal field theory techniques. We then develop a supergravity approach which allows us to examine the phenomenon in more general backgrounds, where we find that kinetic mixing is natural in the context of flux compactifications. We discuss the phenomenological consequences for experiments at the low-energy frontier, searching for signatures of light, sub-electronvolt or even massless hidden-sector U(1) gauge bosons and minicharged particles.
We point out that the states required by the Lattice Weak Gravity Conjecture, along with certain genericity conditions, imply the existence of non-vanishing kinetic mixing between massless Abelian gauge groups in the low-energy effective theory. We carry out a phenomenological estimate using a string-inspired probability distribution for the masses of superextremal states and compare the results to expectations from string theory and field theory, estimating the magnitude of kinetic mixing in each case. In the string case, we compute the kinetic mixing in an ensemble of 1858 MSSM-like heterotic orbifolds as well as in Type II supergravity on a Calabi-Yau manifold. From the field theory perspective, we consider compactifications of a 5D gauge theory. Finally, we discuss potential loopholes that can evade the bounds set by our estimates.
We present a novel string-derived $U(1)$ combination that satisfies necessary properties to survive to low scales. We discuss previous attempts at acquiring such an abelian gauge symmetry from two different string embeddings and the pitfalls associated with them. Finally, we give an example of how a satisfactory model may be constructed within our framework.
Inspired by recent studies of high-scale decay constant or flavorful QCD axions, we review and clarify their existence in effective string models with anomalous $U(1)$ gauge groups. We find that such models, when coupled to charged scalars getting vacuum expectation values, always have one light axion, whose mass can only come from nonperturbative effects. If the main nonperturbative effect is from QCD, then it becomes a Peccei-Quinn axion candidate for solving the strong CP problem. We then study simple models with universal Green-Schwarz mechanism and only one charged scalar field: in the minimal gaugino condensation case the axion mass is tied to the supersymmetry breaking scale and cannot be light enough, but slightly refined models maintain a massless axion all the way down to the QCD scale. Both kinds of models can be extended to yield intermediate scale axion decay constants. Finally, we gauge flavorful axion models under an anomalous $U(1)$ and discuss the axion couplings which arise.
Massive $U(1)$ gauge theories featuring parametrically light vectors are suspected to belong in the Swampland of consistent EFTs that cannot be embedded into a theory of quantum gravity. We study four-dimensional, chiral $U(1)$ gauge theories that appear anomalous over a range of energies up to the scale of anomaly-cancelling massive chiral fermions. We show that such theories require to be UV-completed at a finite cutoff below which a radial mode must appear, and cannot be decoupled -- a Stuckelberg limit does not exist. When the infrared fermion spectrum contains a mixed $U(1)$-gravitational anomaly, this class of theories provides a toy model of a boundary into the Swampland, for sufficiently small values of the vector mass. In this context, we show that the limit of a parametrically light vector comes at the cost of a quantum gravity scale that lies parametrically below $M_{Pl}$, and our result provides field theoretic evidence for the existence of a Swampland of EFTs that is disconnected from the subset of theories compatible with a gravitational UV-completion. Moreover, when the low energy theory also contains a $U(1)^3$ anomaly, the Weak Gravity Conjecture scale makes an appearance in the form of a quantum gravity cutoff for values of the gauge coupling above a certain critical size.
We study the graviton phenomenology of TeV Little String Theory by exploiting its holographic gravity dual five-dimensional theory. This dual corresponds to a linear dilaton background with a large bulk that constrains the Standard Model fields on the boundary of space. The linear dilaton geometry produces a unique Kaluza-Klein graviton spectrum that exhibits a ~ TeV mass gap followed by a near continuum of narrow resonances that are separated from each other by only ~ 30 GeV. Resonant production of these particles at the LHC is the signature of this framework that distinguishes it from large extra dimensions where the KK states are almost a continuum with no mass gap, and warped models where the states are separated by a TeV.