Dr Andrei Constantin

Abstract:

We present a detailed study of the effective cones of Calabi-Yau threefolds with h1,1 = 2, including the possible types of walls bounding the Kähler cone and a classification of the intersection forms arising in the geometrical phases. For all three normal forms in the classification we explicitly solve the geodesic equation and use this to study the evolution near Kähler cone walls and across flop transitions in the context of M-theory compactifications. In the case where the geometric regime ends at a wall beyond which the effective cone continues, the geodesics “crash” into the wall, signaling a breakdown of the M-theory supergravity approximation. For illustration, we characterise the structure of the extended Kähler and effective cones of all h1,1 = 2 threefolds from the CICY and Kreuzer-Skarke lists, providing a rich set of examples for studying topology change in string theory. These examples show that all three cases of intersection form are realised and suggest that isomorphic flops and infinite flop sequences are common phenomena.

Abstract:

We use reinforcement learning as a means of constructing string compactifications with prescribed properties. Specifically, we study heterotic (Formula presented.) GUT models on Calabi-Yau three-folds with monad bundles, in search of phenomenologically promising examples. Due to the vast number of bundles and the sparseness of viable choices, methods based on systematic scanning are not suitable for this class of models. By focusing on two specific manifolds with Picard numbers two and three, we show that reinforcement learning can be used successfully to explore monad bundles. Training can be accomplished with minimal computing resources and leads to highly efficient policy networks. They produce phenomenologically promising states for nearly 100% of episodes and within a small number of steps. In this way, hundreds of new candidate standard models are found.

Abstract:

The zeroth line bundle cohomology on Calabi-Yau three-folds encodes information about the existence of flop transitions and the genus zero Gromov-Witten invariants. We illustrate this claim by studying several Picard number 2 Calabi-Yau three-folds realised as complete intersections in products of projective spaces. Many of these manifolds exhibit certain symmetries on the Picard lattice which preserve the zeroth cohomology.

Abstract:

We investigate swampland conjectures for quantum gravity in the context of M-theory compactified on Calabi-Yau threefolds which admit infinite sequences of flops. Naively, the moduli space of such compactifications contains paths of arbitrary geodesic length traversing an arbitrarily large number of Kähler cones, along which the low-energy spectrum remains virtually unchanged. In cases where the infinite chain of Calabi-Yau manifolds involves only a finite number of isomorphism classes, the moduli space has an infinite discrete symmetry which relates the isomorphic manifolds connected by flops. This is a remnant of the eleven-dimensional Poincare symmetry and is consequently gauged, as it has to be, by the no-global symmetry conjecture. The apparent contradiction with the swampland distance conjecture is hence resolved after dividing by this discrete symmetry. If the flop sequence involves infinitely many nonisomorphic manifolds, this resolution is no longer available. However, such a situation cannot occur if the Kawamata-Morrison conjecture for Calabi-Yau threefolds is true. Conversely, the swampland distance conjecture, when applied to infinite flop chains, implies the Kawamata-Morrison conjecture under a plausible assumption on the diameter of the Kähler cones.