The "landscape" of Pati--Salam heterotic superstring vacua

The main aspects of a recently developed method for classification of heterotic superstring vacua in the Free Fermionic Formulation are presented. Using these techniques we classify a big number of approximately $10^{15}$ heterotic string vacua with Pati--Salam, SU(4)x{SU(2)}_Lx{SU(2)}_R gauge symmetry with respect to their main phenomenological features as the number of families, Pati--Salam breaking Higgs, Standard Model Higgs doublets, additional triplets and exotic charge states. We identify an interesting subclass of these vacua, approximately one to one million, whose massless spectrum is completely free of fractionally charge states.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figues, Presented at "School and Workshops on Cosmology and Strings: Theory-Cosmology-Phenomenology" (CORFU2009), September 6-13, Corfu, Greec

Towards classification of SO(10) heterotic string vacua

We report some recent progress towards classification of phenomenologically appealing heterotic string models in the Free Fermionic Formulation. We focus on a class of Z2xZ2 models with SO(10) space-time gauge symmetry and study their main phenomenological aspects. We further consider reducing the gauge symmetry to the Pati-Salam gauge group SU(4)XSU(2)_LxSU(2)_R and impose a series of phenomenological constraints including the existence of gauge symmetry breaking Higgs particles and the elimination of exotic fractionally charged states.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, To appear in the proceedings of 10th Hellenic School and Workshops on Elementary Particle Physics and Gravity (CORFU2010), Corfu, Greece, 29 Aug - 19 Sep 201

Top quark mass coupling and classification of weakly-coupled heterotic superstring vacua

The quest for the Standard Model among the huge number of string vacua is usually based on a set of phenomenological criteria related to the massless spectrum of string models. In this work we study criteria associated with interactions in the effective low energy theory and in particular with the presence of the coupling that provides mass to the top quark. Working in the context of the Free Fermionic Formulation of the heterotic superstring, we demonstrate that, in a big class of phenomenologically promising $Z_2\times Z_2$ compactifications, these criteria can be expressed entirely in terms of the generalised GSO projection coefficients entering the definition of the models. They are shown to be very efficient in identifying phenomenologically viable vacua, especially in the framework of computer-based search, as they are met by approximately one every $10^4$ models. We apply our results in the investigation of a class of supersymmetric Pati-Salam vacua, comprising $10^{16}$ configurations, and show that when combined with other phenomenological requirements they lead to a relatively small set of about $10^7$ Standard Model compatible models that can be fully classified.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, minor changes, to be published in The European Physical Journal

Nonequational Stable Groups

We introduce a combinatorial criterion for verifying whether a formula is not the conjunction of an equation and a co-equation. Using this, we give a transparent proof for the nonequationality of the free group, which was originally proved by Sela. Furthermore, we extend this result to arbitrary free products of groups (except $\mathbb{Z}_2*\mathbb{Z}_2$), providing an abundance of new stable nonequational theories.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

A Pati-Salam model from branes

We explore the possibility of embedding the Pati-Salam model in the context of Type I brane models. We study a generic model with U(4)_C x U(2)_L x U(2)_R gauge symmetry and matter fields compatible with a Type I brane configuration. Examining the anomaly cancellation conditions of the surplus abelian symmetries we find an alternative hypercharge embedding that is compatible with a low string/brane scale of the order of 5-7 TeV, when the U(4)_C and U(2)_R brane stack couplings are equal. Proton stability is assured as baryon number is associated to a global symmetry remnant of the broken abelian factors. It is also shown that this scenario can accommodate an extra low energy abelian symmetry that can be associated to lepton number. The issue of fermion and especially neutrino masses is also discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure, final version to be published in Phys. Lett.

Spinor-vector duality and light Z' in heterotic string vacua

We discuss the construction of heterotic--string models that allow for the existence of an extra $Z^\prime$ at low scales. One of the main difficulties encountered is that the desired symmetries tend to be anomalous in the prevailing three generation constructions. The reason is that these models utilise the symmetry breaking pattern $E_6\rightarrow SO(10)\times U(1)_\zeta$ by GGSO projections. Consequently, $U(1)_\zeta$ becomes anomalous. The spinor--vector duality that was observed in the fermionic $Z_2\times Z_2$ orbifold compactifications is used to construct a phenomenological three generation Pati--Salam heterotic--string model in which $U(1)_\zeta$ is anomaly free and therefore can be a component of a low scale $Z^\prime$. The model implies existence of matter states at the $Z^\prime$ breaking scale, which are required for anomaly cancelation. Moreover, the string model gives rise to exotic states, which are $SO(10)$ singlets but carry exotic $U(1)_\zeta$ charges. These states arise due to the breaking of $E_6$ by discrete Wilson lines and provide natural dark matter candidates. Initial indications suggest that the existence of additional gauge symmetries at the TeV scale may be confirmed in run II of the LHC experiment.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of PLANCK 2015 international conference, 25-29 May 2015, Ioannnina, Greece. 17 pages. Standard LaTex. 2 figure