20 research outputs found
Astrophysical and Cosmological Implications of Large Volume String Compactifications
We study the spectrum, couplings and cosmological and astrophysical
implications of the moduli fields for the class of Calabi-Yau IIB string
compactifications for which moduli stabilisation leads to an exponentially
large volume V ~ 10^{15} l_s^6 and an intermediate string scale m_s ~
10^{11}GeV, with TeV-scale observable supersymmetry breaking. All K\"ahler
moduli except for the overall volume are heavier than the susy breaking scale,
with m ~ ln(M_P/m_{3/2}) m_{3/2} ~ (\ln(M_P/m_{3/2}))^2 m_{susy} ~ 500 TeV and,
contrary to standard expectations, have matter couplings suppressed only by the
string scale rather than the Planck scale. These decay to matter early in the
history of the universe, with a reheat temperature T ~ 10^7 GeV, and are free
from the cosmological moduli problem (CMP). The heavy moduli have a branching
ratio to gravitino pairs of 10^{-30} and do not suffer from the gravitino
overproduction problem. The overall volume modulus is a distinctive feature of
these models and is an M_{planck}-coupled scalar of mass m ~ 1 MeV and subject
to the CMP. A period of thermal inflation can help relax this problem. This
field has a lifetime ~ 10^{24}s and can contribute to dark matter. It may be
detected through its decays to 2\gamma or e^+e^-. If accessible the e^+e^-
decay mode dominates, with Br(\chi \to 2 \gamma) suppressed by a factor
(ln(M_P/m_{3/2}))^2. We consider the potential for detection of this field
through different astrophysical sources and find that the observed gamma-ray
background constrains \Omega_{\chi} <~ 10^{-4}. The decays of this field may
generate the 511 keV emission line from the galactic centre observed by
INTEGRAL/SPI.Comment: 31 pages, 2 figures; v2. refs adde
Explicit de Sitter Flux Vacua for Global String Models with Chiral Matter
We address the open question of performing an explicit stabilisation of all
closed string moduli (including dilaton, complex structure and Kaehler moduli)
in fluxed type IIB Calabi-Yau compactifications with chiral matter. Using toric
geometry we construct Calabi-Yau manifolds with del Pezzo singularities.
D-branes located at such singularities can support the Standard Model gauge
group and matter content. In order to control complex structure moduli
stabilisation we consider Calabi-Yau manifolds which exhibit a discrete
symmetry that reduces the effective number of complex structure moduli. We
calculate the corresponding periods in the symplectic basis of invariant
three-cycles and find explicit flux vacua for concrete examples. We compute the
values of the flux superpotential and the string coupling at these vacua.
Starting from these explicit complex structure solutions, we obtain AdS and dS
minima where the Kaehler moduli are stabilised by a mixture of D-terms,
non-perturbative and perturbative alpha'-corrections as in the LARGE Volume
Scenario. In the considered example the visible sector lives at a dP_6
singularity which can be higgsed to the phenomenologically interesting class of
models at the dP_3 singularity.Comment: 49 pages, 5 figures; v2: references adde
D3/D7 Branes at Singularities: Constraints from Global Embedding and Moduli Stabilisation
In the framework of type IIB string compactifications on Calabi-Yau
orientifolds we describe how to construct consistent global embeddings of
models with fractional D3-branes and connected `flavour' D7-branes at del Pezzo
singularities with moduli stabilisation. Our results are applied to build an
explicit compact example with a left-right symmetric model at a dP_0
singularity which features three families of chiral matter and gauge coupling
unification at the intermediate scale. We show how to stabilise the moduli
obtaining a controlled de Sitter minimum and spontaneous supersymmetry
breaking. We find an interesting non-trivial dynamical relation between the
requirement of TeV-scale soft terms and the correct phenomenological values of
the unified gauge coupling and unification scale.Comment: 31 pages, 5 figures. v2: published version in JHEP, corrections in
section 2.2, Appendix A added for better illustration, typos correcte
Towards a Systematic Construction of Realistic D-brane Models on a del Pezzo Singularity
A systematic approach is followed in order to identify realistic D-brane
models at toric del Pezzo singularities. Requiring quark and lepton spectrum
and Yukawas from D3 branes and massless hypercharge, we are led to Pati-Salam
extensions of the Standard Model. Hierarchies of masses, flavour mixings and
control of couplings select higher order del Pezzo singularities, minimising
the Higgs sector prefers toric del Pezzos with dP3 providing the most
successful compromise. Then a supersymmetric local string model is presented
with the following properties at low energies: (i) the MSSM spectrum plus a
local B-L gauge field or additional Higgs fields depending on the breaking
pattern, (ii) a realistic hierarchy of quark and lepton masses and (iii)
realistic flavour mixing between quark and lepton families with computable CKM
and PMNS matrices, and CP violation consistent with observations. In this
construction, kinetic terms are diagonal and under calculational control
suppressing standard FCNC contributions. Proton decay operators of dimension 4,
5, 6 are suppressed, and gauge couplings can unify depending on the breaking
scales from string scales at energies in the range 10^{12}-10^{16} GeV,
consistent with TeV soft-masses from moduli mediated supersymmetry breaking.
The GUT scale model corresponds to D3 branes at dP3 with two copies of the
Pati-Salam gauge symmetry SU(4)\timesSU(2)R\timesSU(2)L. D-brane instantons
generate a non-vanishing mu-term. Right handed sneutrinos can break the B-L
symmetry and induce a see-saw mechanism of neutrino masses and R-parity
violating operators with observable low-energy implications.Comment: 27 pages plus 5 appendices (42 pages total), 9 figures. v3: equation
refs and citation correcte
Volume Modulus Inflation and the Gravitino Mass Problem
The Hubble constant during the last stages of inflation in a broad class of
models based on the KKLT mechanism should be smaller than the gravitino mass, H
<~ m_{3/2}. We point out that in the models with large volume of
compactification the corresponding constraint typically is even stronger, H <~
m_{3/2}^{3/2}, in Planck units. In order to address this problem, we propose a
class of models with large volume of compactification where inflation may occur
exponentially far away from the present vacuum state. In these models, the
Hubble constant during inflation can be many orders of magnitude greater than
the gravitino mass. We introduce a toy model describing this scenario, and
discuss its strengths and weaknesses.Comment: 24 pages, JHEP style; v2. refs adde
Towards an Observational Appraisal of String Cosmology
We review the current observational status of string cosmology when
confronted with experimental datasets. We begin by defining common
observational parameters and discuss how they are determined for a given model.
Then we review the observable footprints of several string theoretic models,
discussing the significance of various potential signals. Throughout we comment
on present and future prospects of finding evidence for string theory in
cosmology, and on significant issues for the future.Comment: Review accepted for publication in the CQG focus issue on string
cosmology. Minor clarifications and references adde
Kahler Moduli Inflation Revisited
We perform a detailed numerical analysis of inflationary solutions in Kahler
moduli of type IIB flux compactifications. We show that there are inflationary
solutions even when all the fields play an important role in the overall shape
of the scalar potential. Moreover, there exists a direction of attraction for
the inflationary trajectories that correspond to the constant volume direction.
This basin of attraction enables the system to have an island of stability in
the set of initial conditions. We provide explicit examples of these
trajectories, compute the corresponding tilt of the density perturbations power
spectrum and show that they provide a robust prediction of n_s approximately
0.96 for 60 e-folds of inflation.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figure
Challenges for String Cosmology
We critically assess the twin prospects of describing the observed universe
in string theory, and using cosmological experiments to probe string theory.
For the purposes of this short review, we focus on the limitations imposed by
our incomplete understanding of string theory. After presenting an array of
significant obstacles, we indicate a few areas that may admit theoretical
progress in the near future.Comment: 18 pages; contribution to a focus issue on string cosmology for
Classical and Quantum Gravit
Axionic D3-D7 Inflation
We study the motion of a D3 brane moving within a Type IIB string vacuum
compactified to 4D on K3 x T_2/Z_2 in the presence of D7 and O7 planes. We work
within the effective 4D supergravity describing how the mobile D3 interacts
with the lightest bulk moduli of the compactification, including the effects of
modulus-stabilizing fluxes. We seek inflationary solutions to the resulting
equations, performing our search numerically in order to avoid resorting to
approximate parameterizations of the low-energy potential. We consider
uplifting from D-terms and from the supersymmetry-breaking effects of anti-D3
branes. We find examples of slow-roll inflation (with anti-brane uplifting)
with the mobile D3 moving along the toroidal directions, falling towards a
D7-O7 stack starting from the antipodal point. The inflaton turns out to be a
linear combination of the brane position and the axionic partner of the K3
volume modulus, and the similarity of the potential along the inflaton
direction with that of racetrack inflation leads to the prediction n_s \le 0.95
for the spectral index. The slow roll is insensitive to most of the features of
the effective superpotential, and requires a one-in-10^4 tuning to ensure that
the torus is close to square in shape. We also consider D-term inflation with
the D3 close to the attractive D7, but find that for a broad (but not
exhaustive) class of parameters the conditions for slow roll tend to
destabilize the bulk moduli. In contrast to the axionic case, the best
inflationary example of this kind requires the delicate adjustment of potential
parameters (much more than the part-per-mille level), and gives inflation only
at an inflection point of the potential (and so suffers from additional
fine-tuning of initial conditions to avoid an overshoot problem).Comment: 29 pages, 5 figure
The Supermembrane with Central Charges on a G2 Manifold
We construct the 11D supermembrane with topological central charges induced
through an irreducible winding on a G2 manifold realized from the T7/Z2xZ2xZ2
orbifold construction. The hamiltonian H of the theory on a T7 target has a
discrete spectrum. Within the discrete symmetries of H associated to large
diffeomorphisms, the Z2xZ2xZ2 group of automorphisms of the quaternionic
subspaces preserving the octonionic structure is relevant. By performing the
corresponding identification on the target space, the supermembrane may be
formulated on a G2 manifold, preserving the discretness of its supersymmetric
spectrum. The corresponding 4D low energy effective field theory has N=1
supersymmetry.Comment: Reviewed version. spectral propertis discussed, two more sections
added, 27 pages,Late