Prof Andre Lukas

Abstract:

We undertake a systematic scan of vector bundles over spaces from the largest database of known Calabi-Yau three-folds, in the context of heterotic string compactification. Specifically, we construct positive rank five monad bundles over Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in toric varieties, with the number of Kähler moduli equal to one, two, and three and extract physically interesting models. We select models which can lead to three families of matter after dividing by a freely-acting discrete symmetry and including Wilson lines. About 2000 such models on two manifolds are found. © SISSA 2011.

Abstract:

We describe a new approach to heterotic Calabi-Yau model building, based on the systematic construction of vector bundles with Abelian structure groups. Starting with a relatively small number of Calabi-Yau manifolds, about 400 models with the exact matter spectrum of the supersymmet-ric standard model are found in this way. The additional, normally anomalous U(1) symmetries which arise in these models place strong constraints on the allowed four-dimensional operators and can lead to interesting phenomenological consequences, some of which we discuss.

Abstract:

Holomorphic gauge fields in N = 1 supersymmetric heterotic compactifications can constrain the complex structure moduli of a Calabi-Yau manifold. In this paper, the tools necessary to use holomorphic bundles as a mechanism for moduli stabilization are systematically developed. We review the requisite deformation theory - including the Atiyah class, which determines the deformations of the complex structure for which the gauge bundle becomes non-holomorphic and, hence, non-supersymmetric. In addition, two equivalent approaches to this mechanism of moduli stabilization are presented. The first is an efficient computational algorithm for determining the supersymmetric moduli space, while the second is an F-term potential in the four-dimensional theory associated with vector bundle holomorphy. These three methods are proven to be rigorously equivalent. We present explicit examples in which large numbers of complex structure moduli are stabilized. Finally, higher-order corrections to the moduli space are discussed. © 2011 SISSA.

Abstract:

We construct heterotic standard models by compactifying on smooth Calabi-Yau three-folds in the presence of purely Abelian internal gauge fields. A systematic search over complete intersection Calabi-Yau manifolds with less than six Kähler parameters leads to over 200 such models which we present. Each of these models has precisely the matter spectrum of the minimal supersymmetric standard model, at least one pair of Higgs doublets, the standard model gauge group, and no exotics. For about 100 of these models there are four additional U(1) symmetries which are Green-Schwarz anomalous and, hence, massive. In the remaining cases, three U(1) symmetries are anomalous, while the fourth, massless one can be spontaneously broken by singlet vacuum expectation values. The presence of additional global U(1) symmetries, together with the possibility of switching on singlet vacuum expectation values, leads to a rich phenomenology which is illustrated for a particular example. Our database of standard models, which can be further enlarged by simply extending the computer-based search, allows for a detailed and systematic phenomenological analysis of string standard models, covering issues such as the structure of Yukawa couplings, R-parity violation, proton stability, and neutrino masses. © 2011 American Physical Society.