No Arabic abstract
The flavor moonshine hypothesis is formulated to suppose that all particle masses (leptons, quarks, Higgs and gauge particles -- more precisely, their mass ratios) are expressed as coefficients in the Fourier expansion of some modular forms just as, in mathematics, dimensions of representations of a certain group are expressed as coefficients in the Fourier expansion of some modular forms. The mysterious hierarchical structure of the quark and lepton masses is thus attributed to that of the Fourier coefficient matrices of certain modular forms. Our intention here is not to prove this hypothesis starting from some physical assumptions but rather to demonstrate that this hypothesis is experimentally verified and, assuming that the string theory correctly describes the natural law, to calculate the geometry (K{a}hler potential and the metric) of the moduli space of the Calabi-Yau manifold, thus providing a way to calculate the metric of Calabi-Yau manifold itself directly from the experimental data.
Mathieu Moonshine, the observation that the Fourier coefficients of the elliptic genus on K3 can be interpreted as dimensions of representations of the Mathieu group M24, has been proven abstractly, but a conceptual understanding in terms of a representation of the Mathieu group on the BPS states, is missing. Some time ago, Taormina and Wendland showed that such an action can be naturally defined on the lowest non-trivial BPS states, using the idea of `symmetry surfing, i.e., by combining the symmetries of different K3 sigma models. In this paper we find non-trivial evidence that this construction can be generalized to all BPS states.
In this paper we address the following two closely related questions. First, we complete the classification of finite symmetry groups of type IIA string theory on $K3times mathbb R^6$, where Niemeier lattices play an important role. This extends earlier results by including points in the moduli space with enhanced gauge symmetries in spacetime, or, equivalently, where the world-sheet CFT becomes singular. After classifying the symmetries as abstract groups, we study how they act on the BPS states of the theory. In particular, we classify the conjugacy classes in the T-duality group $O^+(Gamma^{4,20})$ which represent physically distinct symmetries. Subsequently, we make two conjectures regarding the connection between the corresponding twining genera of $K3$ CFTs and Conway and umbral moonshine, building upon earlier work on the relation between moonshine and the $K3$ elliptic genus.
It has recently been shown that F-theory based constructions provide a potentially promising avenue for engineering GUT models which descend to the MSSM. In this note we show that in the presence of background fluxes, these models automatically achieve hierarchical Yukawa matrices in the quark and lepton sectors. At leading order, the existence of a U(1) symmetry which is related to phase rotations of the internal holomorphic coordinates at the brane intersection point leads to rank one Yukawa matrices. Subleading corrections to the internal wave functions from variations in the background fluxes generate small violations of this U(1), leading to hierarchical Yukawa structures reminiscent of the Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism. The expansion parameter for this perturbation is in terms of alpha_(GUT)^(1/2). Moreover, we naturally obtain a hierarchical CKM matrix with V_(12) ~ V_(21) ~ epsilon, V_(23) ~ V_(32) ~ epsilon^(2), V_(13) ~ V_(31) ~ epsilon^(3), where epsilon ~ alpha_(GUT)^(1/2), in excellent agreement with observation.
Umbral moonshine connects the symmetry groups of the 23 Niemeier lattices with 23 sets of distinguished mock modular forms. The 23 cases of umbral moonshine have a uniform relation to symmetries of $K3$ string theories. Moreover, a supersymmetric vertex operator algebra with Conway sporadic symmetry also enjoys a close relation to the $K3$ elliptic genus. Inspired by the above two relations between moonshine and $K3$ string theory, we construct a chiral CFT by orbifolding the free theory of 24 chiral fermions and two pairs of fermionic and bosonic ghosts. In this paper we mainly focus on the case of umbral moonshine corresponding to the Niemeier lattice with root system given by 6 copies of $D_4$ root system. This CFT then leads to the construction of an infinite-dimensional graded module for the umbral group $G^{D_4^{oplus 6}}$ whose graded characters coincide with the umbral moonshine functions. We also comment on how one can recover all umbral moonshine functions corresponding to the Niemeier root systems $A_5^{oplus 4}D_4$, $A_7^{oplus 2}D_5^{oplus 2}$ , $A_{11}D_7 E_6$, $A_{17}E_7$, and $D_{10}E_7^{oplus 2}$.
Modular transformations of string theory are shown to play a crucial role in the discussion of discrete flavor symmetries in the Standard Model. They include CP transformations and provide a unification of CP with traditional flavor symmetries within the framework of the eclectic flavor scheme. The unified flavor group is non-universal in moduli space and exhibits the phenomenon of Local Flavor Unification, where different sectors of the theory (like quarks and leptons) can be subject to different flavor structures.