Taking into account the recently proposed poly-instanton corrections to the superpotential and combining the race-track with a KKLT respectively LARGE Volume Scenario in an intricate manner, we show that we gain exponential control over the parameters in an effective superpotential. This allows us to dynamically stabilise moduli such that a conventional MSSM scenario with the string scale lowered to the GUT scale is realised. Depending on the cycles wrapped by the MSSM branes, two different scenarios for the hierarchy of soft masses arise. The first one is a supergravity mediated model with M_3/2=1TeV while the second one features mixed anomaly-supergravity mediation with M_3/2=10^10GeV and split supersymmetry. We also comment on dynamically lowering the scales such that the tree-level cosmological constant is of the order Λ=(10^-3eV)^4.
We review recent attempts to try to combine global issues of string compactifications, like moduli stabilisation, with local issues, like semi-realistic D-brane constructions. We list the main problems encountered, and outline a possible solution which allows globally consistent embeddings of chiral models. We also argue that this stabilisation mechanism leads to an axiverse. We finally illustrate our general claims in a concrete example where the Calabi-Yau manifold is explicitly described by toric geometry.
We construct a minimal example of a supersymmetric grand unified model in a toroidal compactification of type I string theory with magnetized D9-branes. All geometric moduli are stabilized in terms of the background internal magnetic fluxes which are of "oblique" type (mutually non-commuting). The gauge symmetry is just SU(5) and the gauge non-singlet chiral spectrum contains only three families of quarks and leptons transforming in the $10+{\bar 5}$ representations.
We describe the construction of string theory models with semirealistic spectrum in a sector of (anti) D3-branes located at an orbifold singularity at the bottom of a highly warped throat geometry, which is a generalisation of the Klebanov-Strassler deformed conifold. These models realise the Randall-Sundrum proposal to naturally generate the Planck/electroweak hierarchy in a concrete string theory embedding, and yielding interesting chiral open string spectra. We describe examples with Standard Model gauge group (or left-right symmetric extensions) and three families of SM fermions, with corr…
In this letter we analyze the relative scales for the GUT and twin sectors in the F-theory model discussed in Ref. \cite{Clemens-3}. There are a number of volume moduli in the model. The volume of the GUT surface in the visible sector {[}sector(1){]} (with the Wilson line GUT breaking) defines the GUT scale $M_{GUT}\sim2\times10^{16}~GeV$ as the unification scale with precise gauge coupling unification of $SU(3)\times SU(2)\times U(1)_{Y}$. We choose $α_{GUT}^{-1}\sim24$. We are then free to choose the ratio $α_{G}(2)/α_{G}(1)=m_{1}/m_{2}$ with $m(1)$ and $m(2)$ independent volume moduli assoc…
Soft supersymmetry breaking terms were recently derived for type IIB string flux compactifications with all moduli stabilised. Depending on the choice of the discrete input parameters of the compactification such as fluxes and ranks of hidden gauge groups, the string scale was found to have any value between the TeV and GUT scales. We study the phenomenological implications of these compactifications at low energy. Three realistic scenarios can be identified depending on whether the Standard Model lies on D3 or D7 branes and on the value of the string scale. For the MSSM on D7 branes and the s…
I discuss several issues concerning the use of string models as unified theories of all interactions. After a short review of gauge coupling unification in the string context, I discuss possible motivations for the construction of $SU(5)$ and $SO(10)$ String-GUTs. I describe the construction of such String-GUTs using different orbifold techniques and emphasize those properties which could be general. Although $SO(10)$ and $SU(5)$ String-GUTs are relatively easy to build, the spectrum bellow the GUT scale is in general bigger than that of the MSSM and includes colour octets and $SU(2)$ triplets…
We investigate the conditions for a QCD axion to coexist with stabilised moduli in string compactifications. We show how the simplest approaches to moduli stabilisation give unacceptably large masses to the axions. We observe that solving the F-term equations is insufficient for realistic moduli stabilisation and give a no-go theorem on supersymmetric moduli stabilisation with unfixed axions applicable to all string compactifications and relevant to much current work. We demonstrate how nonsupersymmetric moduli stabilisation with unfixed axions can be realised. We finally outline how to stabil…
We study a class of flux compactifications that have all the moduli stabilised, a high (GUT) string scale and a low (TeV) gravitino mass that is generated dynamically. These non-geometric compactifications correspond to type II string theories on SU(3)xSU(3) structure orientifolds. The resulting superpotentials admit, excluding non-perturbative effects, supersymmetric Minkowski vacua with any number of moduli stabilised. We argue that non-perturbative effects are present and introduce terms in the superpotential that are exponentially suppressed by the same moduli that appear perturbatively. T…
We propose a new mechanism of (geometric) moduli stabilisation in type IIB/F-theory four-dimensional compactifications on Calabi-Yau manifolds, in the presence of 7-branes, that does not rely on non-perturbative effects. Complex structure moduli and the axion-dilaton system are stabilised in the standard way, without breaking supersymmetry, using 3-form internal fluxes. Kähler class moduli stabilisation utilises perturbative string loop corrections, together with internal magnetic fields along the D7-branes world-volume leading to Fayet-Iliopoulos D-terms in the effective supergravity action. …
The one-loop vacuum energy is explicitly computed for a class of perturbative string vacua where supersymmetry is spontaneously broken by a T-duality invariant asymmetric Scherk-Schwarz deformation. The low-lying spectrum is tachyon-free for any value of the compactification radii and thus no Hagedorn-like phase-transition takes place. Indeed, the induced effective potential is free of divergence, and has a global anti de Sitter minimum where geometric moduli are naturally stabilised.
We discuss the stabilization of the compact dimension for a class of five-dimensional orbifold supergravity models. Supersymmetry is broken by the superpotential on a boundary. Classically, the size $L$ of the fifth dimension is undetermined, with or without supersymmetry breaking, and the effective potential is of no-scale type. The size $L$ is fixed by quantum corrections to the Kähler potential, the Casimir energy and Fayet-Iliopoulos (FI) terms localized at the boundaries. For an FI scale of order $M_\mathrm{GUT}$, as in heterotic string compactifications with anomalous $\U1$ symmetries, o…
A new superstring-motivated framework for a treatment of SU(N) SUSY GUTs is argued. We show that all the present difficulties of the minimal supersymmetric SU(5) model can successfully be overcome with a new renormalizable reflection-invariant superpotential with two-adjoint scalars, one of which is interpreted as a massive string mode essentially decoupled from the low-energy particle spectra. This superpotential is proved to properly fix a mass ratio of the basic adjoint scalar moduli, while its gauge-type reflection symmetry essentially protects the model from gravitational smearing. The si…
In this thesis we study compactifications of type II string theories and M-theory to four dimensions. We construct the four-dimensional N=2 supergravities that arise from compactifications of type IIA string theory and M-theory on manifolds with SU(3)-structure. We then study their potential for moduli stabilisation and give explicit examples where all the moduli are stabilised. We also study the effective action for type IIB conifold transitions on Calabi-Yau manifolds. We find that, although there are small regions in phase space that lead to a completed transition, generically the moduli ar…
We consider de Sitter vacua realised in concrete type IIB Calabi-Yau compactifications with an anti D3-brane at the tip of a warped throat of Klebanov-Strassler type. The Kähler moduli are stabilised together with the complex structure modulus of the warped throat. The volume is exponentially large as in the large volume scenario (LVS). We analyse the conditions on the parameters of the EFT such that they are in the region of validity of our approximations, there are no runaway problems and the vacua satisfy all consistency constraints, such as tadpole cancellation. We illustrate our results w…
We construct flux-stabilised IIB compactifications whose extra dimensions (EDs) have very different sizes, and use these to describe several vacua with a TeV string scale. Because we can access regimes where 2 dimensions are hierarchically larger than the other 4, we find examples where 2 dimensions are micron-sized while the other 4 are at the weak scale in addition to standard examples with all 6 EDs equally large. Besides providing UV completeness, the phenomenology of these models is richer than vanilla large-dimensional models in several ways: (i) they are supersymmetric, with SUSY broken…
We present an overview of inflationary models derived from string theory focusing mostly on closed string moduli as inflatons. After a detailed discussion of the eta-problem and different approaches to address it, we describe possible ways to obtain a de Sitter vacuum with all closed string moduli stabilised. We then look for inflationary directions and present some of the most promising scenarios where the inflatons are either the real or the imaginary part of Kaehler moduli. We pay particular attention on extracting potential observable implications, showing how most of the scenarios predict…
We consider four-dimensional supersymmetric compactifications of the E8 x E8 heterotic string on Calabi-Yau manifolds endowed with vector bundles with structure group SU(N) x U(1) and five-branes. After evaluating the Green-Schwarz mechanism and deriving the generalized Donaldson-Uhlenbeck-Yau condition including the five-brane moduli, we show that this construction can give rise to GUT models containing U(1) factors like flipped SU(5) or directly the Standard Model even on simply connected Calabi-Yau manifolds. Concrete realizations of three-generation models on elliptically fibered Calabi-Ya…
We present an explicit calculation of the spectrum of a general class of string models, corresponding to Calabi-Yau flux compactifications with h_{1,2}>h_{1,1}>1 with leading perturbative and non-perturbative corrections, in which all geometric moduli are stabilised as in hep-th/0502058. The volume is exponentially large, leading to a range of string scales from the Planck mass to the TeV scale, realising for the first time the large extra dimensions scenario in string theory. We provide a general analysis of the relevance of perturbative and non-perturbative effects and the regime of validity…
In this note we analyse the issue of moduli stabilisation in 4d models obtained from heterotic string compactifications on manifolds with SU(3) structure with standard embedding. In order to deal with tractable models we first integrate out the massive fields. We argue that one can not only integrate out the moduli fields, but along the way one has to truncate also the corresponding matter fields. We show that the effective models obtained in this way do not have satisfactory solutions. We also look for stabilised vacua which take into account the presence of the matter fields. We argue that t…
We show that under general conditions there is at least one natural inflationary direction for the Kahler moduli of type IIB flux compactifications. This requires a Calabi-Yau which has h^{2,1}>h^{1,1}>2 and for which the structure of the scalar potential is as in the recently found exponentially large volume compactifications. We also need - although these conditions may be relaxed - at least one Kahler modulus whose only non-vanishing triple-intersection is with itself and which appears by itself in the non-perturbative superpotential. Slow-roll inflation then occurs without a fine tuning of…
We study the vacuum structure of compactifications of type II string theories on orientifolds with SU(3)xSU(3) structure. We argue that generalised geometry enables us to treat these non-geometric compactifications using a supergravity analysis in a way very similar to geometric compactifications. We find supersymmetric Minkowski vacua with all the moduli stabilised at weak string coupling and all the tadpole conditions satisfied. Generically the value of the moduli fields in the vacuum is parametrically controlled and can be taken to arbitrarily large values.
We analyze the perturbative stability of non-supersymmetric intersecting brane world models on tori. Besides the dilaton tadpole, a dynamical instability in the complex structure moduli space occurs at string disc level, which drives the background geometry to a degenerate limit. We show that in certain orbifold models this latter instability is absent as the relevant moduli are frozen. We construct explicit examples of such orbifold intersecting brane world models and discuss the phenomenological implications of a three generation Standard Model which descends naturally from an SU(5) GUT theo…
We study the influence of anomalous U(1) symmetries and their associated D-terms on the vacuum structure of global field theories once they are coupled to N=1 supergravity and in the context of string compactifications with moduli stabilisation. In particular, we focus on a IIB string motivated construction of the ISS scenario and examine the influence of one additional U(1) symmetry on the vacuum structure. We point out that in the simplest one-Kahler modulus compactification, the original ISS vacuum gets generically destabilised by a runaway behaviour of the potential in the modulus directio…
The three-year data from WMAP are in stunning agreement with the simplest possible quadratic potential for chaotic inflation, as well as with new or symmetry-breaking inflation. We investigate the possibilities for incorporating these potentials within supergravity, particularly of the no-scale type that is motivated by string theory. Models with inflation driven by the matter sector may be constructed in no-scale supergravity, if the moduli are assumed to be stabilised by some higher-scale dynamics and at the expense of some fine-tuning. We discuss specific scenarios for stabilising the modul…
We show that previous proposals to accommodate the MSSM with string theory N=0 non-supersymmetric compactifications coming from intersecting D6-branes may be made fully consistent with the cancellation of RR tadpoles. In this respect we present the first examples of non-supersymmetric string Pati-Salam model vacua with starting observable gauge group $SU(4)_c \t SU(2)_L \t SU(2)_R$ (SU(2) from Sp(2)'s) that accommodate the spectrum of the 3 generation MSSM with a gauged baryon number with all extra exotics (either chiral or non-chiral) becoming massive and all MSSM Yukawas realized. The N=1 su…
We present a field theoretical model unifying grand unified theory (GUT) and brane world scenario. As a concrete example, we consider $SU(5)$ GUT in 4+1 dimensions where our 3+1 dimensional spacetime spontaneously arises on five domain walls. A field-dependent gauge kinetic term is used to localize massless non-Abelian gauge fields on the domain walls and to assure the charge universality of matter fields. We find the domain walls with the symmetry breaking $SU(5)\to SU(3)\times SU(2)\times U(1)$ as a global minimum and all the undesirable moduli are stabilized with the mass scale of $M_{\rm G…
Wilson line on a non-simply connected manifold is a nice way to break SU(5) unified symmetry, and to solve the doublet--triplet splitting problem. This mechanism also requires, however, that the two Higgs doublets are strictly vector-like under all underlying gauge symmetries, and consequently there is a limit in a class of modes and their phenomenology for which the Wilson line can be used. An alternative is to turn on a non-flat line bundle in the U(1)_Y direction on an internal manifold, which does not have to be non-simply connected. The U(1)_Y gauge field has to remain in the massless spe…
We present an explicit embedding of axionic N-flation in type IIB string compactifications where most of the Kahler moduli are stabilised by perturbative effects, and so are hierarchically heavier than the corresponding N >> 1 axions whose collective dynamics drives inflation. This is achieved in the framework of the LARGE Volume Scenario for moduli stabilisation. Our set-up can be used to realise a model of either inflation or quintessence, just by varying the volume of the internal space which controls the scale of the axionic potential. Both cases predict a very high scale of supersymmetry …
This paper develops the computation of soft supersymmetry breaking terms for chiral D7 matter fields in IIB Calabi-Yau flux compactifications with stabilised moduli. We determine explicit expressions for soft terms for the single-modulus KKLT scenario and the multiple-moduli large volume scenario. In particular we use the chiral matter metrics for Calabi-Yau backgrounds recently computed in hep-th/0609180. These differ from the better understood metrics for non-chiral matter and therefore give a different structure of soft terms. The soft terms take a simple form depending explicitly on the mo…
We compute the one-loop gauge couplings in six-dimensional non-Abelian gauge theories on the T^2/Z_2 orbifold with general GUT breaking boundary conditions. For concreteness, we apply the obtained general formulae to the gauge coupling running in a 6D SO(10) orbifold GUT where the GUT group is broken down to the standard model gauge group up to an extra U(1). We find that the one-loop corrections depend on the parity matrices encoding the orbifold boundary conditions as well as the volume and shape moduli of extra dimensions. When the U(1) is broken by the VEV of bulk singlets, the accompanyin…
We study the topological conditions for general Calabi-Yaus to get a non-supersymmetric AdS exponentially large volume minimum of the scalar potential in flux compactifications of IIB string theory. We show that negative Euler number and the existence of at least one blow-up mode resolving point-like singularities are necessary and sufficient conditions for moduli stabilisation with exponentially large volumes. We also analyse the general effects of string loop corrections on this scenario. While the combination of alpha' and nonperturbative corrections are sufficient to stabilise blow-up mode…
We investigate deformations of $\mathbb{Z}_2$ orbifold singularities on the toroidal orbifold $T^6/(\mathbb{Z}_2\times\mathbb{Z}_6)$ with discrete torsion in the framework of Type IIA orientifold model building with intersecting D6-branes wrapping special Lagrangian cycles. To this aim, we employ the hypersurface formalism developed previously for the orbifold $T^6/(\mathbb{Z}_2\times\mathbb{Z}_2)$ with discrete torsion and adapt it to the $\mathbb{Z}_2\times\mathbb{Z}_6\timesΩ\mathcal{R}$ point group by modding out the remaining $\mathbb{Z}_3$ subsymmetry and the orientifold projection $Ω\mat…
Recent work has established a method of constructing non-supersymmetric string models that are stable, with near-vanishing one-loop dilaton tadpoles and cosmological constants. This opens up the tantalizing possibility of realizing stable string models whose low-energy limits directly resemble the Standard Model rather than one of its supersymmetric extensions. In this paper we consider the general structure of such strings and find that they share two important phenomenological properties. The first is a so-called "GUT-precursor" structure in which new GUT-like states appear with masses that …
We analyse soft supersymmetry breaking in type IIB de Sitter string vacua after moduli stabilisation, focussing on models in which the Standard Model is sequestered from the supersymmetry breaking sources and the spectrum of soft-terms is hierarchically smaller than the gravitino mass $m_{3/2}$. Due to this feature, these models are compatible with gauge coupling unification and TeV scale supersymmetry with no cosmological moduli problem. We determine the influence on soft-terms of concrete realisations of de Sitter vacua constructed from supersymmetric effective actions. One of these scenario…
We consider a novel scenario for modulus stabilisation in IIB string compactifications in which the Kahler moduli are stabilised by a general set-up with two kinds of non-perturbative effects: (i) standard Kahler moduli-dependent non-perturbative effects from gaugino condensation on D7-branes or E3-instantons wrapping four-cycles in the geometric regime; (ii) dilaton-dependent non-perturbative effects from gaugino condensation on space-time filling D3-branes or E(-1)-instantons at singularities. For the LARGE Volume Scenario (LVS), the new dilaton-dependent non-perturbative effects provide a p…
We construct N=1 and N=0 chiral four-dimensional vacua of flux compactification in Type IIB string theory. These vacua have the common features that they are free of tadpole instabilities (both NSNS and RR) even for models with N=0 supersymmetry. In addition, the dilaton/complex structure moduli are stabilised and the supergravity background metric is warped. We present an example in which the low energy spectrum contains the MSSM spectrum with three generations of chiral matter. In the N=0 models, the background fluxes which stabilise the moduli also induce soft supersymmetry breaking terms i…
We address the open question of performing an explicit stabilisation of all closed string moduli (including dilaton, complex structure and Kaehler moduli) in fluxed type IIB Calabi-Yau compactifications with chiral matter. Using toric geometry we construct Calabi-Yau manifolds with del Pezzo singularities. D-branes located at such singularities can support the Standard Model gauge group and matter content. In order to control complex structure moduli stabilisation we consider Calabi-Yau manifolds which exhibit a discrete symmetry that reduces the effective number of complex structure moduli. W…
The issue of non-local GUT symmetry breaking is addressed in the context of open string model building. We study ZNxZM' orbifolds with all the GUT-breaking orbifold elements acting freely, as rotations accompanied by translations in the internal space.We consider open strings quantized on these backgrounds, distinguishing whether the translational action is parallel or perpendicular to the D-branes. GUT breaking is impossible in the purely perpendicular case, non-local GUT breaking is instead allowed in the purely parallel case. In the latter, the scale of breaking is set by the compactificati…
Moduli Stabilisation for ADD and the Dark Dimension Scenario
Durham University（杜伦大学）；Università di Bologna（博洛尼亚大学）；INFN, Sezione di Bologna（意大利国家核物理研究所博洛尼亚分部）；Università di Trieste（的里雅斯特大学）；INFN, Sezione di Trieste（意大利国家核物理研究所的里雅斯特分部）
An ansatz, Det. $M_{\tilde H}=0,$ for the Higgsino mass matrix in string orbifold trinification is suggested toward the minimal supersymmetric standard model(MSSM). Small instanton solutions effective around the GUT scale can fulfil this condition. An argument that the couplings contain a moduli field is given for a dynamical realization of this Higgsino mass matrix ansatz.
We analyse a new ${\cal N}=1$ string tree level correction at ${\cal O}(α'^2)$ to the Kähler potential of the volume moduli of type IIB Calabi-Yau flux compactification found recently by Grimm, Savelli and Weissenbacher~\cite{Grimm:2013gma} and its impact on the moduli potential. We find that it imposes a strong lower bound the Calabi-Yau volume in the Large Volume Scenario of moduli stabilisation. For KKLT-like scenarios we find that consistency of the action imposes an upper bound on the flux superpotential $|W_0|\lesssim 10^{-3}$, while parametrically controlled survival of the KKLT minimum…
Tree-level moduli stabilization via geometric and non-geometric fluxes in type IIB orientifolds on Calabi-Yau manifolds is investigated. The focus is on stable non-supersymmetric minima, where all moduli are fixed except for some massless axions. The scenario includes the purely axionic orientifold-odd moduli. A set of vacua allowing for parametric control over the moduli vacuum expectation values and their masses is presented, featuring a specific scaling with the fluxes. Uplift mechanisms and supersymmetry breaking soft masses on MSSM-like D7-branes are discussed as well. This scenario provi…
String theory realisations of the QCD axion are often said to belong to the anthropic window where the decay constant is around the GUT scale and the initial misalignment angle has to be tuned close to zero. In this paper we revisit this statement by studying the statistics of axion physics in the string landscape. We take moduli stabilisation properly into account since the stabilisation of the saxions is crucial to determine the physical properties of the corresponding axionic partners. We focus on the model-independent case of closed string axions in type IIB flux compactifications and find…
We study the structure of the soft SUSY-breaking terms obtained from some classes of 4-D strings under the assumption of dilaton/moduli dominance in the process of SUSY-breaking. We generalize previous analysis in several ways and in particular consider the new features appearing when several moduli fields contribute to SUSY breaking (instead of an overall modulus $T$). Some qualitative features indeed change in the multimoduli case.A general discussion for symmetric Abelian orbifolds as well as explicit examples are given. Certain general sum-rules involving soft terms of different particles …
A major problem in discussing heterotic string models is the stabilisation of the many vector bundle moduli via the superpotential generated by world-sheet instantons. In arXiv:1110.6315 we have discussed the method to make a discrete twist in a large and much discussed class of vector bundles such that the generation number gets new contributions (which can be tuned suitably) and at the same time the space of bundle moduli of the new, twisted bundle is a proper subspace (where the 'new', non-generic twist class exists) of the original bundle moduli space; one thus gets a model, closely relate…
We consider six-dimensional supergravity with Abelian bulk flux compactified on an orbifold. The effective low-energy action can be expressed in terms of N=1 chiral moduli superfields with a gauged shift symmetry. The D-term potential contains two Fayet-Iliopoulos terms which are induced by the flux and by the Green-Schwarz term canceling the gauge anomalies, respectively. The Green-Schwarz term also leads to a correction of the gauge kinetic function which turns out to be crucial for the existence of Minkowski and de Sitter vacua. Moduli stabilization is achieved by the interplay of the D-ter…
The QCD axion solving the strong CP problem may originate from antisymmetric tensor gauge fields in compactified string theory, with a decay constant around the GUT scale. Such possibility appears to be ruled out now by the detection of tensor modes by BICEP2 and the PLANCK constraints on isocurvature density perturbations. A more interesting and still viable possibility is that the string theoretic QCD axion is charged under an anomalous U(1)_A gauge symmetry. In such case, the axion decay constant can be much lower than the GUT scale if moduli are stabilized near the point of vanishing Fayet…
We present a detailed study of the finite-temperature behaviour of the LARGE Volume type IIB flux compactifications. We show that certain moduli can thermalise at high temperatures. Despite that, their contribution to the finite-temperature effective potential is always negligible and the latter has a runaway behaviour. We compute the maximal temperature $T_{max}$, above which the internal space decompactifies, as well as the temperature $T_*$, that is reached after the decay of the heaviest moduli. The natural constraint $T_*<T_{max}$ implies a lower bound on the allowed values of the interna…
We investigate bulk moduli stabilisation and supersymmetry breaking in local string/F-theory models where the Standard Model is supported on a del Pezzo surface or singularity. Computing the gravity mediated soft terms on the Standard Model brane induced by bulk supersymmetry breaking in the LARGE volume scenario, we explicitly find suppressions by M_s/M_P ~ V^{-1/2} compared to M_{3/2}. This gives rise to several phenomenological scenarios, depending on the strength of perturbative corrections to the effective action and the source of de Sitter lifting, in which the soft terms are suppressed …
We construct flipped SU(5) GUT models as Type IIB flux vacua on $\Z_2\times \Z_2$ orientifolds. Turning on supergravity self-dual NSNS and RR three-form fluxes fixes the toroidal complex structure moduli and the dilaton. We give a specific example of a three-generation flipped SU(5) model with a complete Higgs sector where supersymmetry is softly broken by the supergravity fluxes in the closed string sector. All of the required Yukawa couplings are present if global U(1) factors resulting from a generalized Green-Schwarz mechanism are broken spontaneously or by world-sheet instantons. In addit…
