Related papers: GUTs in Type IIB Orientifold Compactifications
This article is the PhD thesis of the author. It is focused on Type II compactifications because of the potential for the construction of realistic MSSM-like compactifications. In particular we concentrate in Type IIB Calabi-Yau…
Using a reconstruction theorem, we prove that the supersymmetry conditions for a certain class of flux backgrounds are equivalent with a tractable subsystem of relations on differential forms which encodes the full set of contraints arising…
We describe a non-supersymmetric orbifold GUT based on SU(5) symmetry. It is a modification of Kawamura's 5-D orbifold GUT model. The difference lies in the choice of Higgs scalars as we have allowed only 5-plets of SU(5) in the GUT scale.…
For compact Calabi-Yau geometries with D5-branes we study N=1 effective superpotentials depending on both open- and closed-string fields. We develop methods to derive the open/closed Picard-Fuchs differential equations, which control…
We study heterotic model building on 16 specific Calabi-Yau manifolds constructed as hypersurfaces in toric four-folds. These 16 manifolds are the only ones among the more than half a billion manifolds in the Kreuzer-Skarke list with a…
It has recently been realized that a large class of Calabi-Yau models in which the VEV of the gauge connection is not set equal to the spin connection of the Calabi-Yau manifold are valid classical solutions of string theory. We provide…
We describe a family of genus one fibered Calabi-Yau threefolds with fundamental group ${\mathbb Z}/2$. On each Calabi-Yau $Z$ in the family we exhibit a positive dimensional family of Mumford stable bundles whose symmetry group is the…
An analytic construction of compact Calabi-Yau manifolds with del Pezzo singularities is found. We present complete intersection CY manifolds for all del Pezzo singularities and study the complex deformations of these singularities. An…
We study the relation between discrete gauge symmetries in F-theory compactifications and torsion homology on the associated Calabi-Yau manifold. Focusing on the simplest example of a $\mathbb Z_2$ symmetry, we show that there are two…
We study superstrings with orientifold projections and with generalized open string boundary conditions (D-branes). We find two types of consistency condition, one related to the algebra of Chan-Paton factors and the other to cancellation…
We construct a compactification of the heterotic string on an orbifold T^6/Z_6 leading to the standard model spectrum plus vector--like matter. The standard model gauge group is obtained as an intersection of three SO(10) subgroups of E_8.…
We present a six-dimensional T^2/Z_2 orbifold model which arises as an intermediate step in the compactification of the heterotic string to the MSSM. The orbifold contains two pairs of inequivalent fixed points, with unbroken local gauge…
We study M-theory on a Calabi-Yau fourfold with a smooth surface $S$ of $A_{N-1}$ singularities. The resulting three-dimensional theory has a $\mathcal{N}=2$ $SU(N)$ gauge theory sector, which we obtain from a twisted dimensional reduction…
We analyze S-duality of orientifolds of the Calabi-Yau cone over the first del Pezzo surface ($dP_1$). The S-duals of known phases, described by quiver gauge theories, contain intrinsically strongly-coupled sectors. These sectors are…
We generalize Calabi-Yau 3-folds from the special Lagrangian perspective. More precisely, we study SU(3)-structures which admit as "nice" a local special Lagrangian geometry as the flat $\mathbf{C}^3$ or a Calabi-Yau structure does. The…
We study Type I string theory compactified on a T^6/Z_3 orientifold. The low-energy dynamics is most conveniently analyzed in terms of D3-branes. We show that a sector of the theory, which corresponds to placing an odd number of D3-branes…
The systematic program of heterotic line bundle model building has resulted in a wealth of standard-like models (SLM) for particle physics. In this paper, we continue this work in the setting of generalised Complete Intersection Calabi Yau…
We investigate gauge coupling unification for F-theory respectively Type IIB orientifold constructions of SU(5) GUT theories with gauge symmetry breaking via non-trivial hypercharge flux. This flux has the non-trivial effect that it splits…
Only two kinds of compactification are known that lead to four-dimensional supersymmetric AdS vacua with moduli stabilisation and separation of scales at tree-level. The most studied ones are compactifications of massive IIA supergravity on…
We provide a general overview of the current state of the art in three generation model building proposals - using intersecting D-brane toroidal compactifications of IIA string theories - which have, only, the SM at low energy. In this…