Non-geometric fluxes as supergravity backgrounds

We consider examples of D=4 string theory vacua which, although globally non-geometric, admit a local description in terms of D=10 supergravity backgrounds. We analyze such backgrounds and find that the supersymmetry spinors vary non-trivially along the internal manifold, reproducing the interpolating supergravity solutions found by Frey and Grana. Finally, we propose a simple, local expression for non-geometric fluxes in terms of the internal spinors of the compactification.Comment: 5 pages. Further typos correcte

Non-perturbative effects on seven-brane Yukawa couplings

We analyze non-perturbative corrections to the superpotential of seven-brane gauge theories on type IIB and F-theory warped Calabi-Yau compactifications. We show in particular that such corrections modify the holomorphic Yukawa couplings by an exponentially suppressed contribution, generically solving the Yukawa rank-one problem present in F-theory local models. We provide explicit expressions for the non-perturbative correction to the seven-brane superpotential, and check that it is related to a non-commutative deformation to the tree-level superpotential via the Seiberg-Witten map.Comment: 4 pages. v2: minor changes, footnotes and citations added. Version to be published in PR

Type IIA Flux Vacua and α′\alpha'-corrections

We analyse type IIA Calabi-Yau orientifolds with backgroud fluxes, taking into account the effect of perturbative $\alpha'$-corrections. In particular, we consider the $\alpha'$-corrections that modify the metrics in the K\"ahler sector of the compactification. As it has been argued in the literature, including such $\alpha'$-corrections allows to construct the mirror duals of type IIB Calabi-Yau flux compactifications, in which the effect of flux backreaction is under control. We compute the $\alpha'$-corrected scalar potential generated by the presence of RR and NS fluxes, and reformulate it as a bilinear of the flux-axion polynomials invariant under the discrete shift symmetries of the compactification. The use of such invariants allows to express in a compact and simple manner the conditions for Minkowski and AdS flux vacua, and to extract the effect of $\alpha'$-corrections on them.Comment: 40 pages, typos corrected and references adde

U(1) mixing and D-brane linear equivalence

Linear equivalence is a criterion that compares submanifolds in the same homology class. We show that, in the context of type II compactifications with D-branes, this concept translates to the kinetic mixing between U(1) gauge symmetries arising in the open and closed string sectors. We argue that in generic D-brane models such mixing is experimentally detectable through the existence of milli-charged particles. We compute these gauge kinetic functions by classifying the 4d monopoles of a compactification and analyzing the Witten effect on them, finding agreement with previous results and extending them to more general setups. In particular, we compute the gauge kinetic functions mixing bulk and magnetized D-brane U(1)'s and derive a generalization of linear equivalence for these objects. Finally, we apply our findings to F-theory SU(5) models with hypercharge flux breaking.Comment: 43 pages+appendices, 1 figure; v2: typos corrected and references adde

Challenges for D-brane large-field inflation with stabilizer fields

We study possible string theory compactifications which, in the low-energy limit, describe chaotic inflation with a stabilizer field. We first analyze type IIA setups where the inflationary potential arises from a D6-brane wrapping an internal three-cycle, and where the stabilizer field is either an open-string or bulk K\"ahler modulus. We find that after integrating out the relevant closed-string moduli consistently, tachyonic directions arise during inflation which cannot be lifted. This is ultimately due to the shift symmetries of the type IIA K\"ahler potential at large compactification volume. This motivates us to search for stabilizer candidates in the complex structure sector of type IIB orientifolds, since these fields couple to D7-brane Wilson lines and their shift symmetries are generically broken away from the large complex structure limit. However, we find that in these setups the challenge is to obtain the necessary hierarchy between the inflationary and Kaluza-Klein scales.Comment: 26 pages, typos corrected and comments added. Published versio