Flavour mixings in flux compactifications

A multiplicity of quark-lepton families can naturally arise as zero-modes in flux compactifications. The flavour structure of quark and lepton mass matrices is then determined by the wave function profiles of the zero-modes. We consider a supersymmetric $SO(10)\times U(1)$ model in six dimensions compactified on the orbifold $T^2/{\mathbb Z_2}$ with Abelian magnetic flux. A bulk $\mathbf{16}$-plet charged under the $U(1)$ provides the quark-lepton generations whereas two uncharged $\mathbf{10}$-plets yield two Higgs doublets. Bulk anomaly cancellation requires the presence of additional $\mathbf{16}$- and $\mathbf{10}$-plets. The corresponding zero-modes form vectorlike split multiplets that are needed to obtain a successful flavour phenomenology. We analyze the pattern of flavour mixings for the two heaviest families of the Standard Model and discuss possible generalizations to three and more generations.Comment: 28 pages, 3 figures, 3 table

Chiral fermions and anomaly cancellation on orbifolds with Wilson lines and flux

We consider six-dimensional supergravity compactified on orbifolds with Wilson lines and bulk flux. Torus Wilson lines are decomposed into Wilson lines around the orbifold fixed points, and twisted boundary conditions of matter fields are related to fractional localized flux. Both, orbifold singularities and flux lead to chiral fermions in four dimensions. We show that in addition to the standard bulk and fixed point anomalies the Green-Schwarz term also cancels the four-dimensional anomaly induced by the flux background. The two axions contained in the antisymmetric tensor field both contribute to the cancellation of the four-dimensional anomaly and the generation of a vector boson mass via the Stueckelberg mechanism. An orthogonal linear combination of the axions remains massless and couples to the gauge field in the standard way. Furthermore, we construct convenient expressions for the wave functions of the zero modes and relate their multiplicity and behavior at the fixed points to the bulk flux quanta and the Wilson lines.Comment: 30 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, clarifying remarks adde

Meeting the Demand for Results and Accountability: A Call for Action on Health Data from Eight Global Health Agencies

Margaret Chan, Director-General of the WHO, and the heads of seven other global health agencies, call for a concerted global effort to collect better health data

From meta-studies to modeling: Using synthesis knowledge to build broadly applicable process-based land change models

International audienceThis paper explores how meta-studies can support the development of process-based land change models (LCMs) that can be applied across locations and scales. We describe a multi-step framework for model development and provide descriptions and examples of how meta-studies can be used in each step. We conclude that meta-studies best support the conceptualization and experimentation phases of the model development cycle, but cannot typically provide full model parameterizations. Moreover, meta-studies are particularly useful for developing agent-based LCMs that can be applied across a wide range of contexts, locations, and/or scales, because meta-studies provide both quantitative and qualitativedata needed to derive agent behaviors more readily than from case study or aggregate data sources alone. Recent land change synthesis studies provide sufficient topical breadth and depth to support the development of broadly applicable process-based LCMs, as well as the potential to accelerate the production of generalized knowledge through model-driven synthesis