Related papers: Spinor-vector duality and light Z' in heterotic st…
The heterotic--string models in the free fermionic formulation gave rise to some of the most realistic string models to date, which possess N=1 spacetime supersymmetry. Lack of evidence for supersymmetry at the LHC instigated recent…
Using Z3 asymmetric orbifolds in heterotic string theory, we construct N=1 SUSY three-generation models with the standard model gauge group SU(3)_C \times SU(2)_L \times U(1)_Y and the left-right symmetric group SU(3)_C \times SU(2)_L…
We consider the heterotic E8 X E8 string theory, which gives rise to four-dimensional Standard-like Models and allows for their SO(10) embedding. We investigate two different schemes of compactification: the free fermionic formulation and…
The emergence of free fermionic string models with solely the MSSM charged spectrum below the string scale provides further evidence to the assertion that the true string vacuum is connected to the Z_2 x Z_2 orbifold in the vicinity of the…
The possible existence of an exponentially large number of vacua in string theory behooves one to consider possibilities beyond our traditional notions of naturalness. Such an approach to electroweak physics was recently used in "Split…
Intersecting D-brane worlds provide phenomenologically appealing constructions of four dimensional low energy string vacua. In this talk, a Z_4 x Z_2 orbifold background is taken into account. It is possible to obtain supersymmetric and…
Some of the supersymmetric nonlinear sigma models on exceptional groups (E7 or E8) are known to yield almost minimal necessary content of matter fields for phenomenological model building, including three chiral families and a Higgs…
We describe a method for constructing genuinely asymmetric (2,0) heterotic strings out of N=2 minimal models in the fermionic sector, whereas the bosonic sector is only partly build out of N=2 minimal models. This is achieved by replacing…
A Z_2 orbifold compactification of the heterotic string is considered. The resulting 6D GUT groups can be SO(16) or E_7 times SU(2) plus some hidden sector groups. The N=4 supersymmetry is reduced to N=2. In particular, the SO(16) 6D model…
The Twin Higgs model is the preeminent example of a theory of neutral naturalness, where the new particles that alleviate the little hierarchy problem are Standard Model (SM) singlets. The most promising collider search strategy, based on…
Anomalous U(1) gauge symmetries in type II orientifold theories show some unexpected properties. In contrast to the heterotic case, the masses of the gauge bosons are in general of order of the string scale even in the absence of large…
The gauge symmetry $SU(5) \times U(1)_\chi$ is the unique maximal subgroup of SO(10) which retains manifest unification at $M_{GUT}$ of the Standard Model gauge couplings, especially if low scale supersymmetry is present. The spontaneous…
Common to many classes of three family SU(3)_C x SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y string models are an additional anomalous U(1)_A and numerous, often fractionally charged, exotic particles beyond the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). I present…
Proton stability is one of the most perplexing puzzles in particle physics. While the renormalizable Standard Model forbids proton decay mediating operators due to accidental global symmetries, many of its extensions introduce such…
The di-photon excess observed at the LHC can be explained as a Standard Model singlet that is produced and decays by heavy vector-like colour triplets and electroweak doublets in one-loop diagrams. The characteristics of the required…
We study the cosmology of a string derived supersymmetric flipped $SU(5)$ model in the context of free-fermionic heterotic constructions that allow full calculability of the effective supergravity in perturbation theory around the fermionic…
I review findings of various research groups regarding perturbative heterotic string model building in the last 12 months. Attention is given to recent studies of extra U(1)'s and local discrete symmetries (LDS's) in generic string models.…
The Swampland Program aims to address the question, "when does an effective field theory model of quantum gravity have an ultraviolet complete embedding in string theory?", and can be regarded as a bottom-up approach to investigations of…
We study the Levin-Wen string-net model with a $Z_N$ type fusion algebra. Solutions of the local constraints of this model correspond to $Z_N$ gauge theory and double Chern-simons theories with quantum groups. For the first time, we…
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…