F-theory Compactifications for Supersymmetric GUTs

We construct a family of elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau four-folds Y_4 for F-theory compactifications that realize SU(5) GUTs in the low-energy limit. The three-fold base X_3 of these fibrations is almost Fano and satisfies the topological criteria required to ensure that the U(1)_Y gauge boson remains massless, while allowing a decoupling of GUT and Planck scale physics. We study generic features of these models and the ability to engineer three chiral generations of MSSM matter. Finally, we demonstrate that it is relatively easy to implement the topological conditions required to reproduce certain successful features of local F-theory models, such as the emergence of flavor hierarchies.Comment: 55 pages, 10 figure

Radiative Scalar Meson Decays in the Light-Front Quark Model

We construct a relativistic $^3P_0$ wavefunction for scalar mesons within the framework of light-front quark model(LFQM). This scalar wavefunction is used to perform relativistic calculations of absolute widths for the radiative decay processes$(0^{++})\to\gamma\gamma,(0^{++})\to\phi\gamma$, and $(0^{++})\to\rho\gamma$ which incorporate the effects of glueball-$q\bar{q}$ mixing. The mixed physical states are assumed to be $f_0(1370),f_0(1500)$,and $f_0(1710)$ for which the flavor-glue content is taken from the mixing calculations of other works. Since experimental data for these processes are poor, our results are compared with those of a recent non-relativistic model calculation. We find that while the relativistic corrections introduced by the LFQM reduce the magnitudes of the decay widths by 50-70%, the relative strengths between different decay processes are fairly well preserved. We also calculate decay widths for the processes $\phi\to(0^{++})\gamma$ and (0^{++})\to\gamma\gamm involving the light scalars $f_0(980)$ and $a_0(980)$ to test the simple $q\bar{q}$ model of these mesons. Our results of $q\bar{q}$ model for these processes are not quite consistent with well-established data, further supporting the idea that $f_0(980)$ and $a_0(980)$ are not conventional $q\bar{q}$ states.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure