We examine the issue of generating the perturbatively absent ${\bf 10} \cdot {\bf 10} \cdot {\bf 5}^H$ SU(5)/flipped SU(5)Yukawa couplings in type II D-brane orientifold compactifications of string theory both at the perturbative (PER) and the non-perturbative (NP) level. We find at the PER level, higher order terms like $ {\bf 10} \cdot {\bf 10} \cdot {\bf{\bar 5}}^H \cdot{\bf{\bar 5}}^H \cdot {\bf{\bar 5}}^H \cdot {\bf{\bar
5}}^H \cdot {\bf 1}^H \cdot {\bf 1}^H$ in SU(5) may be responsible for the relevant quark mass generation in models with general intersecting D6-branes. Euclidean D2-brane instantons on the other hand can also generate at the NP via the term ${\bf 10} \cdot {\bf 10} \cdot {\bf{\bar 5}}^H \cdot{\bf{\bar 5}}^H \cdot {\bf{\bar 5}}^H \cdot {\bf{\bar 5}}^H $ the relevant quark masses by the use of just the $U(1)_b$ brane, for SU(5) and flipped SU(5) GUTS classes of models. We provide local examples of rigid O(1) instantons within the $T^6/{\mathbb Z}_2 \times {\mathbb Z}_2'$ toroidal orientifold with torsion, whose NP contribution to the masses gets minimal as it is induced by just a duplicated disk diagram.
We analyze the construction of non-supersymmetric three generation six-stack Pati-Salam (PS) $SU(4)_C \times SU(2)_L \times SU(2)_R$ GUT classes of models, by localizing D6-branes intersecting at angles in four dimensional orientifolded toroidal compactifications of type IIA. Special role in the models is played by the presence of extra branes needed to satisfy the RR tadpole cancellation conditions. The models contain at low energy {\em exactly the Standard model} with no extra matter and/or extra gauge group factors. They are build such that they represent deformations around the quark and l…
By employing D6-branes intersecting at angles in $D = 4$ type I strings, we construct {\em five stack} string GUT models (PS-II class), that contain at low energy {\em exactly the Standard model} with no extra matter and/or extra gauge group factors. These classes of models are based on the Pati-Salam (PS) gauge group $SU(4)_C \times SU(2)_L \times SU(2)_R$. They represent deformations around the quark and lepton basic intersection number structure. The models possess the same phenomenological characteristics of some recently discussed examples (PS-A and PS-I class) of four stack PS GUTS. Name…
We present a five-dimensional supersymmetric SU(5) theory in which the gauge symmetry is broken maximally (i.e. at the 5D Planck scale M_*) on the same 4D brane where chiral matter is localized. Masses of the lightest Kaluza-Klein modes for the colored Higgs and X and Y gauge fields are determined by the compactification scale of the fifth dimension, M_C ~ 10^{15} GeV, rather than by M_*. These fields' wave functions are repelled from the GUT-breaking brane, so that proton decay rates are suppressed below experimental limits. Above the compactification scale, the differences between the standa…
By employing D6-branes intersecting at angles in $D = 4$ type IIA strings, we construct {\em four stack string GUT models} (PS-I class), that contain at low energy {\em exactly the three generation Standard model} with no extra matter and/or extra gauge group factors. These classes of models are based on the Pati-Salam (PS) gauge group $SU(4)_C \times SU(2)_L \times SU(2)_R$. They represent deformations around the quark and lepton basic intersection number structure. The models possess the same phenomenological characteristics of some recently discussed examples (PS-A class) of four stack PS G…
We consider realizations of GUT models in F-theory. Adopting a bottom up approach, the assumption that the dynamics of the GUT model can in principle decouple from Planck scale physics leads to a surprisingly predictive framework. An internal U(1) hypercharge flux Higgses the GUT group directly to the MSSM or to a flipped GUT model, a mechanism unavailable in heterotic models. This new ingredient automatically addresses a number of puzzles present in traditional GUT models. The internal U(1) hyperflux allows us to solve the doublet-triplet splitting problem, and explains the qualitative featur…
We study Type I string theory compactified on a T^6/Z_3 orientifold. The low-energy dynamics is most conveniently analyzed in terms of D3-branes. We show that a sector of the theory, which corresponds to placing an odd number of D3-branes at orientifold fixed points, can give rise to an SU(5) gauge theory with three generations of chiral matter fields. The resulting model is not fully realistic, but the relative ease with which an adequate gauge group and matter content can be obtained is promising. The model is also of interest from the point of view of supersymmetry breaking. We show that, f…
We study the relation between phenomenological requirements and the topology of the surfaces that GUT 7-branes wrap in F-theory compactifications. In addition to the exotic matter free condition in the hypercharge flux scenario of SU(5)_{GUT} breaking, we analyze a new condition that comes from a discrete symmetry aligning the contributions to low-energy Yukawa matrices from a number of codimension-three singularity points. We see that the exotic matter free condition excludes Hirzebruch surfaces (except ${\mathbb F}_0$) as the GUT surface, correcting an existing proof in the literature. We fu…
If the universe is (or a slice of) $AdS_5$ space with 3-branes, the 5-dimensional GUT scale on each brane can be indetified as the 5-dimensional Planck scale, but, the 4-dimensional Planck scale is generated from the low 4-dimensional GUT scale exponentially in our world. The 4-dimensional GUT scales and Planck scale are related to the 5-dimensional GUT scales and Planck scale by exponential factors, respectively. One of such scenarios was suggested by Randall and Sundrum recently. We give another scenario that the 4-dimensional Planck scale is generated from the low five-dimensional Planck sc…
The semi-simple unification model based on SU(5)_GUT \times U(3)_H gauge group is an interesting extension of the minimal SU(5)_GUT grand unification theory (GUT), since it solves the two serious problems in the standard GUT: the triplet-doublet splitting problem and the presence of dangerous dimension five operators for proton decay. Here, the extra U(3)_H gauge interaction plays a crucial role on the GUT breaking. In this paper, we show that the full multiplet structure of the U(3)_H sector required for the desired GUT breaking is reproduced naturally on T^6/Z_12 orientifold in the type IIB …
We provide a general overview of the current state of the art in three generation model building proposals - using intersecting D-brane toroidal compactifications of IIA string theories - which have, only, the SM at low energy. In this context, we focus on these model building directions, where natural non-supersymmetric constructions based on $SU(4)_C \times SU(2)_L \times SU(2)_R$, SU(5) and flipped SU(5) GUT groups, have at low energy only the Standard Model. In the flipped SU(5) GUTS, the special build up structure of the models accommodates naturally a see-saw mechanism and a new solution…
Within a toroidal orbifold framework, we exhibit intersecting brane-world constructions of flipped SU(5) \times U(1) GUT models with various numbers of generations, other chiral matter representations and Higgs representations. We exhibit orientifold constructions with integer winding numbers that yield 8 or more conventional SU(5) generations, and orbifold constructions with fractional winding numbers that yield flipped SU(5) \times U(1) models with just 3 conventional generations. Some of these models have candidates for the 5 and {\bar 5} Higgs representations needed for electroweak symmetr…
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…
We discuss a five dimensional inflationary scenario based on a supersymmetric SO(10) model compactified on $S^1/(Z_2\times Z_2')$. Inflation is implemented through scalar potentials on four dimensional branes, and a brane-localized Einstein-Hilbert term is essential to make both brane vacuum energies positive during inflation. The orbifold boundary conditions break the SO(10) gauge symmetry to $SU(4)_c\times SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R$ ($\equiv H$). The inflationary scenario yields $δT/T\propto (M/M_{\rm Planck})^2$, which fixes $M$, the symmetry breaking scale of $H$ to be close to the SUSY GUT sc…
We construct the general model with only parallel positive tension 3-branes on $M^4 \times R^1$ and $M^4 \times R^1/Z_2$. The cosmology constant is sectional constant along the fifth dimension. In this general scenario, the 5-dimensional GUT scale on each brane can be indentified as the 5-dimensional Planck scale, but, the 4-dimensional Planck scale is generated from the low 4-dimensional GUT scale exponentially in our world. We also give two simple models to show explicitly how to solve the gauge hierarchy problem.
By employing D6-branes intersecting at angles in $D = 4$ type I strings, we construct the first examples of three generation string GUT models (PS-A class), that contain at low energy exactly the standard model spectrum with no extra matter and/or extra gauge group factors. They are based on the group $SU(4)_C \times SU(2)_L \times SU(2)_R$. The models are non-supersymmetric, even though SUSY is unbroken in the bulk. Baryon number is gauged and its anomalies are cancelled through a generalized Green-Schwarz mechanism. We also discuss models (PS-B class) which at low energy have the standard mo…
T-branes, which are non-Abelian bound states of branes, were first introduced by Cecotti, Cordova, Heckman and Vafa \cite{Cecotti:2010bp}. They are the refined version of the monodromic branes that feature in the phenomenological F-theory models. Here, we will be interested in the T-brane corresponding to the $Z_3$ monodromy which is used to break the $E_8$ gauge group to obtain the $SO(10)_{GUT}$. This extends the results of \cite{Cecotti:2010bp} to the case of $Z_3$ monodromic T-branes used to break the $E_8$ gauge group to $SO(10)\times SU(3)\times U(1)$ and compute the Yukawa coupling with…
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 construct two SU(5) models on the space-time $M^4 \times T^2/(Z_2 \times Z_2^{\prime})$ where the gauge and Higgs fields are in the bulk and the Standard Model fermions are on the brane at the fixed point or line. For the zero modes, the SU(5) gauge symmetry is broken down to $SU(3) \times SU(2) \times U(1) $ due to non-trivil orbifold projection. In particular, if we put the Standard Model fermions on the 3-brane at the fixed point in Model II, we only have the zero modes and KK modes of the Standard Model gauge fields and two Higgs doublets on the observable 3-brane. So, we can have the l…
We discuss the appearance of non-supersymmetric D6-brane GUT model constructions. We focus on the construction of the first examples of flipped SU(5) and SU(5) GUTS which have only the SM at low energy. These constructions are based on 4D compactifications in Z3 toroidal orientifolds of type IIA with D6-branes intersecting at angles.
We discuss the first string theory examples of three generation non-supersymmetric SU(5) and {\em flipped} SU(5) GUTS, which break to the Standard model at low energy, without extra matter and/or gauge group factors. Our GUT examples are based on IIA $Z_3$ orientifolds with D6-branes intersecting at non-trivial angles. These theories necessarily satisfy RR tadpoles and are free of NSNS tadpoles as the complex structure moduli are frozen (even though a dilaton tadpole remains) to discrete values. We identify appropriately the bifundamental Higgses responsible for electroweak symmetry breaking. …
We analyze proton decay via dimension six operators in certain GUT-like models derived from Type IIA orientifolds with $D6$-branes. The amplitude is parametrically enhanced by a factor of $α_{GUT}^{-1/3}$ relative to the coresponding result in four-dimensional GUT's. Nonetheless, even assuming a plausible enhancement from the threshold corrections, we find little overall enhancement of the proton decay rate from dimension six operators, so that the predicted lifetime from this mechanism remains close to $10^{36}$ years.
We investigate supersymmetric SU(5) grand-unified theories (GUTs) realized in 5 space-time dimensions and broken down to the MSSM by SU(5)-violating boundary conditions on a S^1/(Z_2 x Z_2') orbifold with two 3-branes. The doublet-triplet splitting problem is entirely avoided by locating the MSSM Higgs doublets on the brane on which SU(5) is not a good symmetry. An extremely simple model is then described in which the MSSM matter is also located on this SU(5)-violating brane. Although this model does not unify the MSSM matter within SU(5) multiplets, it explains gauge coupling unification. A s…
We explore a mechanism to obtain the observational small value for the 4-dimensional vacuum energy through an exponential warp-factor suppression. Intriguingly the required suppression scale relates directly to the GUT scale. We demonstrate the mechanism explicitly in a 5-dimensional brane-world setup with warped geometry. Upon lifting the setup to 10-dimensional IIB string-theory, the relevance of the GUT scale becomes clear as the IIB string-theory description, which is based on D3-brane stacks, gives rise to a spontaneously broken SU(5) supersymmetric GUT theory with low-energy MSSM spectru…
The conventional supersymmetric grand unified theories suffer from two serious problems, the large mass splitting between doublet and triplet Higgs multiplets, and the too long lifetime of the proton. A unification model based on a semi-simple group SU(5)_{GUT} \times U(3)_H has been proposed to solve both of the problems simultaneously. Although the proposed model is perfectly consistent with observations, there are various mysteries. In this paper, we show that such mysterious features in the original model are naturally explained by embedding the model into the brane world in a higher dimen…
Proton decay is a generic prediction of GUT models and is therefore an important channel to detect the existence of unification or to set limits on GUT models. Current bounds on the proton lifetime are around 10^33 years, which sets stringent limits on the GUT scale. These limits are obtained under `reasonable' assumptions about the size of the hadronic matrix elements. In this paper we present a non-perturbative calculation of the hadronic matrix elements within the chiral bag model of the proton. We argue that there is an exponential suppression of the matrix elements, due to non-perturbativ…
The doublet--triplet mass splitting problem is one of the most serious problems in supersymmetric grand unified theories (GUTs). A class of models based on a product gauge group, such as the SU(5)_{GUT} times U(3)_H or the SU(5)_{GUT} times U(2)_H, realize naturally the desired mass splitting that is protected by an unbroken R symmetry. It has been pointed out that various features in the models suggest that these product-group unification models are embedded in a supersymmetric brane world. We show an explicit construction of those models in the supersymmetric brane world based on the Type II…
We analyze non-perturbative corrections to the superpotential of seven-brane gauge theories on type IIB and F-theory warped Calabi-Yau compactifications. We show in particular that such corrections modify the holomorphic Yukawa couplings by an exponentially suppressed contribution, generically solving the Yukawa rank-one problem present in F-theory local models. We provide explicit expressions for the non-perturbative correction to the seven-brane superpotential, and check that it is related to a non-commutative deformation to the tree-level superpotential via the Seiberg-Witten map.
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 construct a class of supersymmetric SU(5) GUT models that produce nearly tribimaximal lepton mixing, the observed quark mixing matrix, and the quark and lepton masses, from discrete non-Abelian flavor symmetries. The SU(5) GUTs are formulated on two five-dimensional throats in the flat limit and the neutrino masses become small due to the type-I seesaw mechanism. The discrete non-Abelian flavor symmetries are given by semi-direct products of cyclic groups that are broken at the infrared branes at the tip of the throats. As a result, we obtain SU(5) GUTs that provide a combined description o…
The paper is motivated by observation of a kind of branes in the vacuum state of the lattice SU(2) gluodynamics. The branes represent two-dimensional vortices whose total area scales in physical units while the non-Abelian action diverges in the ultraviolet. We consider the question whether effects of the branes can be accommodated into the continuum theory. We demonstrate that at least in case of the gluon condensate (plaquette action) and of the heavy quark potential the contribution of the branes corresponds to the ultraviolet renormalon. Thus, the vortices might represent a non-perturbativ…
Non-perturbative D-brane instantons can generate perturbatively absent though phenomenologically relevant couplings for Type II orientifold compactifications with D-branes. We discuss the generation of the perturbatively vanishing SU(5) GUT Yukawa coupling of type 10 10 5_H. Moreover, for a simple globally consistent intersecting D6-brane model, we discuss the generation of mass terms for matter fields. This can serve as a mechanism for decoupling exotic matter.
We study $α'$-corrections in multiple D7-brane configurations with non-commuting profiles for their transverse position fields. We focus on T-brane systems, crucial in F-theory GUT model building. There $α'$-corrections modify the D-term piece of the BPS equations which, already at leading order, require a non-primitive Abelian worldvolume flux background. We find that $α'$-corrections may either i) leave this flux background invariant, ii) modify the Abelian non-primitive flux profile, or iii) deform it to a non-Abelian profile. The last case typically occurs when primitive fluxes, a necessar…
We study the modular symmetry in four-dimensional low-energy effective field theory, which is derived from type IIB magnetized D-brane models and type IIA intersecting D-brane models. We analyze modular symmetric behaviors of perturbative terms and non-perturbative terms induced by D-brane instanton effects. Anomalies are also investigated and such an analysis on anomalies suggests corrections in effective field theory.
In these notes we review aspects of semi-realistic particle physics from the point of view of type II orientifold compactifications. We discuss the appearance of gauge theories on spacetime filling D-branes which wrap non-trivial cycles in the Calabi-Yau. Chiral matter can appear at their intersections, with a natural interpretation of family replication given by the topological intersection number. We discuss global consistency, including tadpole cancellation and the generalized Green-Schwarz mechanism, and also the importance of related global $U(1)$ symmetries for superpotential couplings. …
We obtain axionic charged primordial black holes on a vacuum created gravitational pair of $(3{\bar 3})$-brane by the Kalb-Ramond field on a $D_4$-brane in presence of a background open string metric. The new geometries on an emergent pair of $(3{\bar 3})$-brane universe is shown to be influenced by the non-perturbative quantum effects underlying a geometric torsion in a second order formalism. The presence of small extra dimensions transverse to the pair in the formalism ensures dynamical scalar fields hidden to a $3$-brane or an anti 3-brane universe. We investigate the non-perturbative quan…
We perform a detailed conformal field theory analysis of D2-brane instanton effects in four-dimensional type IIA string vacua with intersecting D6-branes. In particular, we explicitly compute instanton induced fermion two-point couplings which play the role of perturbatively forbidden Majorana mass terms for right-handed neutrinos or MSSM mu-terms. These results can readily be extended to higher-dimensional operators. In concrete realizations of such non-perturbative effects, the Euclidean D2-brane has to wrap a rigid, supersymmetric cycle with strong constraints on the zero mode structure. Th…
We study supersymmetric intersecting D6-branes wrapping 3-cycles in the Type IIA T^6/Z_4 orientifold background. As a new feature, the 3-cycles in this orbifold space arise both from the untwisted and the Z_2 twisted sectors. We present an integral basis for the homology lattice, H_3(M,Z), in terms of fractional 3-cycles, for which the intersection form involves the Cartan matrix of E8. We show that these fractional D6-branes can be used to construct supersymmetric brane configurations realizing a three generation Pati-Salam model. Via brane recombination processes preserving supersymmetry, th…
In this note we discuss dynamical mechanisms for brane stabilization in the brane world context. In particular, we consider supersymmetry preserving brane stabilization, and also brane stabilization accompanied by supersymmetry breaking. These mechanisms are realized in some four dimensional N=1 supersymmetric orientifold models. For illustrative purposes we consider two explicit orientifold models previously constructed in hep-th/9806008. In both of these models branes are stabilized at a finite distance from the orientifold planes. In the first model brane stabilization occurs via supersymme…
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…
The Maldacena-Nunez solution is generalized to include a number of integration constants, one of which controls the resolution of the singularity of the wrapped D5-brane background. Some features of the dual pure N=1 super Yang-Mills (SYM) theory are calculated, amongst which the gluino condensate, the beta function of the gauge coupling and a brane probe potential, which is related to the Veneziano-Yankielowicz effective potential. Each integration constant has a precise meaning in the dual SYM theory, e.g., the amount of non-perturbative SYM physics captured by the gravity configuration is d…
Local SU(5) F-theory models lead naturally to Yukawa couplings for the third generation of quarks and leptons, but inducing Yukawas for the lighter generations has proven elusive. Corrections coming from gauge fluxes fail to generate the required couplings, and naively the same applies to instanton effects. We nevertheless revisit the effect of instantons in F-theory GUT constructions and find that contributions previously ignored in the literature induce the leading non-perturbative corrections to the Yukawa couplings. We apply our results to the case of 10 x 5* x 5* couplings in local SU(5) …
We study how non-perturbative dynamics on D-branes affects the ten-dimensional geometry. We show that a gaugino condensate changes the complex and the symplectic structures of the original manifold by deforming the supersymmetry conditions. The cases of D5, D6 and D7-branes are discussed in detail. In the latter case we find the explicit form of the resulting back-reacted background at linear order in the gaugino condensate.
We consider various configurations of T-branes which are non-abelian bound states of branes and were recently introduced by Cecotti, Cordova, Heckman and Vafa. They are a refinement of the concept of monodromic branes featured in phenomenological F-theory models. We are particularly interested in the T-branes corresponding to Z3 and Z4 monodromies, which are used to break E7 or E8 gauge groups to SU(5) GUT. Our results imply that the up-type and down-type Yukawa couplings for the breaking of E7 are zero, whereas up-type and down-type Yukawa couplings, together with right handed neutrino Yukawa…
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. …
We discuss several mechanisms to cancel the anomalies of a 5-brane embedded in M-theory. Two of them work, provided we impose suitable conditions either on the 11-dimensional manifold of M-theory or on the 4-form field strength of M-theory.
The exceptional symmetry is realized perturbatively in F-theory which is the manifest U-duality theory. The SO(5,5) U-duality symmetry acts on both the 16 spacetime coordinates and the 10 worldvolume coordinates. Closure of the Virasoro algebra requires the Gauss law constraints on the worldvolume. This set of current algebras describes a F-theory 10-brane. The SO(5,5) duality symmetry is enlarged to the SO(6,6) in the Lagrangian formulation. We propose actions of the F-theory 10-brane with SO(5,5) and SO(6,6) symmetries. The gauge fields of the latter action is coset elements of SO(6,6)/SO(6;…
In this note we study the N=1 abelian gauge theory on the world volume of a single fractional D3-brane. In the limit where gravitational interactions are not completely decoupled we find that a superpotential and a fermionic bilinear condensate are generated by a D-brane instanton effect. A related situation arises for an isolated cycle invariant under an orientifold projection, even in the absence of any gauge theory brane. Moreover, in presence of supersymmetry breaking background fluxes, such instanton configurations induce new couplings in the 4-dimensional effective action, including non-…
To our best knowledge, the leading non-perturbative stringy interaction between an NS brane and a Dp brane remains unknown. We here present the non-perturbative stringy amplitudes for a system of an F-string and a Dp brane and a system of an NS 5 brane and a Dp brane for $0 \le p \le 6$. In either case, the F or NS5 and the Dp are placed parallel at a separation. We obtain the respective amplitudes, starting from the amplitude for a system of a D1 and a D3 for the former and that for a system of a D5 and a D3 system for the latter, based on the IIB S-duality and various T-dualities plus the co…
We analyze the process of string vacuum destabilization due to instanton induced superpotential couplings which depend linearly on charged fields. These non-perturbative instabilities result in potentials for the D-brane moduli and lead to processes of D-brane recombination, motion and partial moduli stabilization at the non-perturbative vacuum. By using techniques of D-brane instanton calculus, we explicitly compute this scalar potential in toroidal orbifold compactifications with magnetized D-branes by summing over the possible discrete instanton configurations. We illustrate explicitly the …
We discuss the process of transmutation of branes into Abelian magnetic flux on the worldvolume of $D9$ branes. This phenomenon is T-dual to the recombination of branes in the intersecting-brane description. In the low energy limit this can be described by a Higgs mechanism involving bifundamental scalars. The Abelian magnetic background arises as a consequence of the compactness of the internal space. Explicit (six-dimensional) examples based on the supersymmetric and the Brane Supersymmetry Breaking (BSB) \mathbb{T}^4/\mathbb{Z}_2 orientifold are analyzed.
We derive the perturbative four-dimensional effective theory describing heterotic M-theory with branes and anti-branes in the bulk space. The back-reaction of both the branes and anti-branes is explicitly included. To first order in the heterotic strong-coupling expansion, we find that the forces on branes and anti-branes vanish and that the KKLT procedure of simply adding to the supersymmetric theory the probe approximation to the energy density of the anti-brane reproduces the correct potential. However, there are additional non-supersymmetric corrections to the gauge-kinetic functions and m…
We construct three quasi-supersymmetric $G^3$ GUT models with $S_3$ symmetry and gauge coupling unification from intersecting D6-branes on Type IIA orientifolds. The Standard Model fermions and Higgs doublets can be embedded into the bifundamental representations in these models, and there is no any other unnecessary massless representation. Especially in Model I with gauge group $U(4)^3$, we just have three-family SM fermions and three pairs of Higgs particles. The $G^3$ gauge symmetry in these models can be broken down to the Standard Model gauge symmetry by introducing light open string sta…
In this paper we study the thermodynamics of black branes at quantum scales. We analyze both perturbative and non-perturbative corrections to the thermodynamics of such black branes. It will be observed that these corrections will modify the relation between the entropy and area of these black branes. This will in turn modify their specific heat, and thus their stability. So, such corrections can have important consequences for the stability of black branes at quantum scales. We also analyze the effect of these perturbative and non-perturbative quantum corrections on various other thermodynami…
We investigate the transmutation of D-branes into Abelian magnetic backgrounds on the world-volume of higher-dimensional branes, within the framework of global models with compact internal dimensions. The phenomenon, T-dual to brane recombination in the intersecting-brane picture, shares some similarities to inverse small-instanton transitions in non-compact spaces, though in this case the Abelian magnetic background is a consequence of the compactness of the internal manifold, and is not ascribed to a zero-size non-Abelian instanton growing to maximal size. We provide details of the transitio…
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 investigate the transition between singular and non-singular geometries from the vantage point of perturbative field dynamics. In particular, we obtain the closed-form absorption probability for minimally-coupled massless scalars propagating in the background of a heterotic 5-brane on a Taub-NUT instanton. This is an exact calculation for arbitrary incident frequencies. For the singular geometry, the absorption probability vanishes when the frequency is below a certain threshold, and for the non-singular case it vanishes for all frequencies. We discuss the connection between this phenomenon…
We use fractional and wrapped branes to describe perturbative and non-perturbative properties of N=1 super Yang-Mills living on their world-volume. (Talk given at the 1st Nordstrom Symposium, Helsinki, August 2003.)
We reanalyze brane inflation with brane-brane interactions at an angle, which include the special case of brane-anti-brane interaction. If nature is described by a stringy realization of the brane world scenario today (with arbitrary compactification), and if some additional branes were present in the early universe, we find that an inflationary epoch is generically quite natural, ending with a big bang when the last branes collide. In an interesting brane inflationary scenario suggested by generic string model-building, we use the density perturbation observed in the cosmic microwave backgrou…
In these lectures we review the basic ideas of perturbative and non-perturbative string theory. On the non-perturbative side we give an introduction to D-branes and string duality. The elementary concepts of non-BPS branes and noncommutative gauge theories are also discussed.
We study non-perturbative D(-1)-instanton corrections to quartic gauge and curvature couplings in 8d type IIB orientifolds, in terms of a one-loop computation of BPS D0-branes in T-dual type I' models. The complete perturbative and non-perturbative results are determined by the BPS multiplicities of perturbative open strings and D0-brane bound states in the 9d type I' theory. Its modular properties admit a geometric interpretation by lifting to Horava-Witten theory. We use the type I' viewpoint to motivate a proper interpretation of 8d and 4d polyinstanton effects, consistent with heterotic - …