Non-supersymmetric heterotic model building

We investigate orbifold and smooth Calabi-Yau compactifications of the non-supersymmetric heterotic SO(16)xSO(16) string. We focus on such Calabi-Yau backgrounds in order to recycle commonly employed techniques, like index theorems and cohomology theory, to determine both the fermionic and bosonic 4D spectra. We argue that the N=0 theory never leads to tachyons on smooth Calabi-Yaus in the large volume approximation. As twisted tachyons may arise on certain singular orbifolds, we conjecture that such tachyonic states are lifted in the full blow-up. We perform model searches on selected orbifold geometries. In particular, we construct an explicit example of a Standard Model-like theory with three generations and a single Higgs field.Comment: 1+30 pages latex, 11 tables; v2: references and minor revisions added, matches version published in JHE

6D Effective Action of Heterotic Compactification on K3 with nontrivial Gauge Bundles

We compute the six-dimensional effective action of the heterotic string compactified on K3 for the standard embedding and for a class of backgrounds with line bundles and appropriate Yang-Mills fluxes. We compute the couplings of the charged scalars and the bundle moduli as functions of the geometrical K3 moduli from a Kaluza-Klein analysis. We derive the D-term potential and show that in the flux backgrounds U(1) vector multiplets become massive by a Stuckelberg mechanism.Comment: 41 pages, typos corrected, references adde

Multiple-field inflation and the CMB

In this paper, we investigate some consequences of multiple-field inflation for the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). We derive expressions for the amplitudes, the spectral indices and the derivatives of the indices of the CMB power spectrum in the context of a very general multiple-field theory of slow-roll inflation, where the field metric can be non-trivial. Both scalar (adiabatic, isocurvature and mixing) and tensor perturbations are treated and the differences with single-field inflation are discussed. From these expressions, several relations are derived that can be used to determine the importance of multiple-field effects observationally from the CMB. We also study the evolution of the total entropy perturbation during radiation and matter domination and the influence of this on the isocurvature spectral quantities.Comment: 24 pages. References added, some very minor textual changes, matches version to be published in CQ

One loop gauge couplings in AdS5

We calculate the full 1-loop corrections to the low energy coupling of bulk gauge boson in a slice of AdS5 which are induced by generic 5-dimensional scalar, Dirac fermion, and vector fields with arbitrary Z_2 times Z_2' orbifold boundary conditions. In supersymmetric limit, our results correctly reproduce the results obtained by an independent method based on 4-dimensional effective supergravity. This provides a nontrivial check of our results and assures the regularization scheme-independence of the results.Comment: RevTeX, 22 pages, 2 figures, some typos corrected and notations change

Non-linear inflationary perturbations

We present a method by which cosmological perturbations can be quantitatively studied in single and multi-field inflationary models beyond linear perturbation theory. A non-linear generalization of the gauge-invariant Sasaki-Mukhanov variables is used in a long-wavelength approximation. These generalized variables remain invariant under time slicing changes on long wavelengths. The equations they obey are relatively simple and can be formulated for a number of time slicing choices. Initial conditions are set after horizon crossing and the subsequent evolution is fully non-linear. We briefly discuss how these methods can be implemented numerically in the study of non-Gaussian signatures from specific inflationary models.Comment: 10 pages, replaced to match JCAP versio

Gauged Linear Sigma Models for toroidal orbifold resolutions

Toroidal orbifolds and their resolutions are described within the framework of (2,2) Gauged Linear Sigma Models (GLSMs). Our procedure describes two-tori as hypersurfaces in (weighted) projective spaces. The description is chosen such that the orbifold singularities correspond to the zeros of their homogeneous coordinates. The individual orbifold singularities are resolved using a GLSM guise of non-compact toric resolutions, i.e. replacing discrete orbifold actions by Abelian worldsheet gaugings. Given that we employ the same global coordinates for both the toroidal orbifold and its resolutions, our GLSM formalism confirms the gluing procedure on the level of divisors discussed by Lust et al. Using our global GLSM description we can study the moduli space of such toroidal orbifolds as a whole. In particular, changes in topology can be described as phase transitions of the underlying GLSM. Finally, we argue that certain partially resolvable GLSMs, in which a certain number of fixed points can never be resolved, might be useful for the study of mini-landscape orbifold MSSMs.Comment: 71 pages, 2 figure

Quantum inflaton, primordial metric perturbations and CMB fluctuations

We compute the primordial scalar, vector and tensor metric perturbations arising from quantum field inflation. Quantum field inflation takes into account the nonperturbative quantum dynamics of the inflaton consistently coupled to the dynamics of the (classical) cosmological metric. For chaotic inflation, the quantum treatment avoids the unnatural requirements of an initial state with all the energy in the zero mode. For new inflation it allows a consistent treatment of the explosive particle production due to spinodal instabilities. Quantum field inflation (under conditions that are the quantum analog of slow roll) leads, upon evolution, to the formation of a condensate starting a regime of effective classical inflation. We compute the primordial perturbations taking the dominant quantum effects into account. The results for the scalar, vector and tensor primordial perturbations are expressed in terms of the classical inflation results. For a N-component field in a O(N) symmetric model, adiabatic fluctuations dominate while isocurvature or entropy fluctuations are negligible. The results agree with the current WMAP observations and predict corrections to the power spectrum in classical inflation. Such corrections are estimated to be of the order of m^2/H^2 where m is the inflaton mass and H the Hubble constant at horizon crossing. This turns to be about 4% for the cosmologically relevant scales. This quantum field treatment of inflation provides the foundations to the classical inflation and permits to compute quantum corrections to it.Comment: LaTeX, 8 pages, no figures. To appear in the Proceedings of the ERE 2006 Meeting, Journal of Physics: Conference Serie

Chiral gravity as a covariant formulation of massive gravity

We present a covariant nonlinear completion of the Fierz-Pauli (FP) mass term for the graviton. The starting observation is that the FP mass is immediately obtained by expanding the cosmological constant term, i.e. the determinant of the vielbein, around Minkowski space to second order in the vielbein perturbations. Since this is an unstable expansion in the standard case, we consider an extended theory of gravity which describes two vielbeins that give rise to chiral spin--connections (consequently, fermions of a definite chirality only couple to one of the gravitational sectors). As for Einstein gravity with a cosmological constant, a single fine-tuning is needed to recover a Minkowski background; the two sectors then differ only by a constant conformal factor. The spectrum of this theory consists of a massless and a massive graviton, with FP mass term. The theory possesses interesting limits in which only the massive graviton is coupled to matter at the linearized level.Comment: 1+16 pages LaTeX, typos corrected, and some references adde

A perfect match of MSSM-like orbifold and resolution models via anomalies

Compactification of the heterotic string on toroidal orbifolds is a promising set-up for the construction of realistic unified models of particle physics. The target space dynamics of such models, however, drives them slightly away from the orbifold point in moduli space. This resolves curvature singularities, but makes the string computations very difficult. On these smooth manifolds we have to rely on an effective supergravity approximation in the large volume limit. By comparing an orbifold example with its blow-up version, we try to transfer the computational power of the orbifold to the smooth manifold. Using local properties, we establish a perfect map of the the chiral spectra as well as the (local) anomalies of these models. A key element in this discussion is the Green-Schwarz anomaly polynomial. It allows us to identify those redefinitions of chiral fields and localized axions in the blow-up process which are relevant for the interactions (such as Yukawa-couplings) in the model on the smooth space.Comment: 2+35 pages, 1 figur