Related papers: Open string axions and the flavor problem
Dynamical mechanisms to generate an ultralight axion of mass $\sim 10^{-21}-10^{-22}$ eV in supergravity and strings are discussed. An ultralight particle of this mass provides a candidate for dark matter that may play a role for cosmology…
We propose a new framework for constructing supersymmetric theories of flavor, in which flavor symmetry breaking is triggered by the dynamical breakdown of supersymmetry at low energies. All mass scales in our scheme are generated from the…
Scenarios with axion-like particles of variable masses, from the milli-eV range to ultralight, can be generated in a natural way in the context of effective field theory models with anomalous $U(1)$ gauge symmetries. They include…
We discuss the phenomenology and cosmology of a Standard-like Model inspired by string theory, in which the gauge fields are localized on D-branes wrapping certain compact cycles on an underlying geometry, whose intersection can give rise…
A model with fermion and scalar fields charged under a Peccei-Queen~(PQ) symmetry is proposed. The PQ charges are chosen in such a way that they can reproduce mass matrices with five texture zeros, {which can generate} the fermion masses,…
Axion strings and domain walls exhibit a number of novel effects in the presence of gauge fields, in particular the electromagnetic field. It is shown how these effects are reproduced in a model of Nambu-Goto-type strings and open or closed…
We consider the recently proposed cosmological relaxation mechanism where the hierarchy problem is ameliorated, and the electroweak scale is dynamically selected by a slowly rolling axion field. We argue that, in its simplest form, the…
We study flavour issues in nonsupersymmetric intersecting brane models. Specifically, the purpose of the present paper is twofold: (i) to determine whether realistic flavour structures can be obtained in these models, and (ii) to establish…
We consider an instance of the AdS/CFT duality where the bulk theory contains an open string tachyon, and study the instability from the viewpoint of the boundary field theory. We focus on the specific example of the AdS_5 X S^5 background…
We give an overview of recent progress in the study of fermion mass and flavor mixing phenomena. Mass matrix ansatze are considered within the SM and SUSY GUTs where some predictive frameworks based on SU(5) and SO(10) are reviewed. We…
We propose a simple $U(2)$ model of flavor compatible with an $SU(5)$ GUT structure. All hierarchies in fermion masses and mixings arise from powers of two small parameters that control the $U(2)$ breaking. In contrast to previous $U(2)$…
The axion solution to the strong CP problem requires an anomalous global U(1) symmetry. We show that the existence of such a symmetry is a natural consequence of an extra dimension in which a gauged U(1) is spontaneously broken on one of…
In rigid supersymmetry, generic models of dynamical supersymmetry breaking contain a light Goldstone boson, called the R axion. We show that supergravity effects explicitly break the R symmetry and give mass to the R axion. For visible and…
We study the consequences of the existence and breaking of a Peccei--Quinn symmetry within the context of a dynamical model of electroweak symmetry breaking based on broken gauged flavour symmetries. We perform an estimate of the axion mass…
Phenomenological studies of Flavored Dark Matter (FDM) models often have to assume a near-diagonal flavor structure in the coupling matrix in order to remain consistent with bounds from flavor violating processes. In this paper we show that…
The observed flavor structure of the standard model arises naturally in "split fermion" models which localize fermions at different places in an extra dimension. It has, until now, been assumed that the bulk masses for such fermions can be…
We argue for the existence of bounds on the tensions of $p$-branes in de Sitter space in terms of the Hubble rate and the strength of a class of Chern-Simons-like couplings. The world-volume couplings involve Abelian 1-form gauge fields in…
Recent investigations involving the decay of unstable D-branes in string theory suggest that the tree level open string theory which describes the dynamics of the D-brane already knows about the closed string states produced in the decay of…
In this paper, we investigate axion physics in 4D F-theory MSSM models. We derive the axion coupling term with QCD gauge fields and the axion potential from a top-down perspective, from both IIB superstring and the dual M-theory picture.…
Superheavy neutrinos can, via the seesaw model, provide a mechanism for lepton number violation. If they are combined with flavor violation as characterized by the Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism, then the phenomenology for the neutrinos in…