Gauge sector statistics of intersecting D-brane models

In this article, which is based on the first part of my PhD thesis, I review the statistics of the open string sector in T^6/(Z_2xZ_2) orientifold compactifications of the type IIA string. After an introduction to the orientifold setup, I discuss the two different techniques that have been developed to analyse the gauge sector statistics, using either a saddle point approximation or a direct computer based method. The two approaches are explained and compared by means of eight- and six-dimensional toy models. In the four-dimensional case the results are presented in detail. Special emphasis is put on models containing phenomenologically interesting gauge groups and chiral matter, in particular those containing a standard model or SU(5) part.Comment: 51 pages, 29 figures; v2: ref. added, version to appear in Fortsch. Phys; v3: ref. adde

Line transversals to disjoint balls

We prove that the set of directions of lines intersecting three disjoint balls in $R^3$ in a given order is a strictly convex subset of $S^2$. We then generalize this result to $n$ disjoint balls in $R^d$. As a consequence, we can improve upon several old and new results on line transversals to disjoint balls in arbitrary dimension, such as bounds on the number of connected components and Helly-type theorems.Comment: 21 pages, includes figure

Complex patterns on the plane: different types of basin fractalization in a two-dimensional mapping

Basins generated by a noninvertible mapping formed by two symmetrically coupled logistic maps are studied when the only parameter \lambda of the system is modified. Complex patterns on the plane are visualised as a consequence of basins' bifurcations. According to the already established nomenclature in the literature, we present the relevant phenomenology organised in different scenarios: fractal islands disaggregation, finite disaggregation, infinitely disconnected basin, infinitely many converging sequences of lakes, countable self-similar disaggregation and sharp fractal boundary. By use of critical curves, we determine the influence of zones with different number of first rank preimages in the mechanisms of basin fractalization.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figure

Some determinants of path generating functions

We evaluate four families of determinants of matrices, where the entries are sums or differences of generating functions for paths consisting of up-steps, down-steps and level steps. By specialisation, these determinant evaluations have numerous corollaries. In particular, they cover numerous determinant evaluations of combinatorial numbers - most notably of Catalan, ballot, and of Motzkin numbers - that appeared previously in the literature.Comment: 35 pages, AmS-TeX; minor corrections; final version to appear in Adv. Appl. Mat

Vicious walkers, friendly walkers and Young tableaux II: With a wall

We derive new results for the number of star and watermelon configurations of vicious walkers in the presence of an impenetrable wall by showing that these follow from standard results in the theory of Young tableaux, and combinatorial descriptions of symmetric functions. For the problem of $n$-friendly walkers, we derive exact asymptotics for the number of stars and watermelons both in the absence of a wall and in the presence of a wall.Comment: 35 pages, AmS-LaTeX; Definitions of n-friendly walkers clarified; the statement of Theorem 4 and its proof were correcte

The Statistics of Supersymmetric D-brane Models

We investigate the statistics of the phenomenologically important D-brane sector of string compactifications. In particular for the class of intersecting D-brane models, we generalise methods known from number theory to determine the asymptotic statistical distribution of solutions to the tadpole cancellation conditions. Our approach allows us to compute the statistical distribution of gauge theoretic observables like the rank of the gauge group, the number of chiral generations or the probability of an SU(N) gauge factor. Concretely, we study the statistics of intersecting branes on T^2 and T^4/Z_2 and T^6/Z_2 x Z_2 orientifolds. Intriguingly, we find a statistical correlation between the rank of the gauge group and the number of chiral generations. Finally, we combine the statistics of the gauge theory sector with the statistics of the flux sector and study how distributions of gauge theoretic quantities are affected.Comment: 62 pages, 31 figures, harvmac; v3: sections 3.2. + 3.7. added, figs. 7,28,29 added, figs. 24,25,26 corrected, refs. added, typos correcte