Lectures on F-theory compactifications and model building

These lecture notes are devoted to formal and phenomenological aspects of F-theory. We begin with a pedagogical introduction to the general concepts of F-theory, covering classic topics such as the connection to Type IIB orientifolds, the geometry of elliptic fibrations and the emergence of gauge groups, matter and Yukawa couplings. As a suitable framework for the construction of compact F-theory vacua we describe a special class of Weierstrass models called Tate models, whose local properties are captured by the spectral cover construction. Armed with this technology we proceed with a survey of F-theory GUT models, aiming at an overview of basic conceptual and phenomenological aspects, in particular in connection with GUT breaking via hypercharge flux.Comment: Invited contribution to the proceedings of the CERN Winter School on Supergravity, Strings and Gauge Theory 2010, to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravity; 63 pages; v2: references added, typos correcte

Searching for the Standard Model in the String Landscape : SUSY GUTs

The goal of the present review article is to describe the ingredients necessary to find the Standard Model in the string landscape.Comment: 70 pages, 20 figures, this review article will be published in Reports on Progress in Physic