Related papers: QCD Axion as a Bridge Between String Theory and Fl…
A broad experimental program is targeting the QCD axion band predicted by single-axion solutions to the strong CP problem. Multi-axion theories provide a well-motivated departure from this canonical picture, since additional states…
We present a numerical study of the spectrum of an asymptotically non-free $SU(2)$ gauge theory with $N_f=24$ massive fermion flavors. For such large number of flavors, asymptotic freedom is lost and the massless theory is governed by a…
Precision flavor experiments can look for the QCD axion complementarily to usual searches with axion helio- and haloscopes, allowing to test PQ breaking scales as high as $10^{12} \, {\rm GeV}$. Such searches are sensitive to…
We discuss aspects of a promising top-down origin of flavor symmetries in particle physics. Modular transformations originating from string theory dualities are shown to play a crucial role. We introduce the notion of an "eclectic" flavor…
Modular transformations of string theory are shown to play a crucial role in the discussion of discrete flavor symmetries in the Standard Model. They include CP transformations and provide a unification of CP with traditional flavor…
We explore a dynamical mechanism to realize the emergence of a global $U(1)_{\rm PQ}$ symmetry and its spontaneous breaking at an intermediate scale for an axion solution to the strong CP problem. Such a dynamics is provided by a new…
We consider supersymmetric QCD in the free magnetic phase with massless and massive flavors. The theory has a supersymmetry breaking pseudo-moduli space of vacua and a runaway behavior far away from the origin. A two-loop computation…
In this paper, we show that the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry with a good quality can be realized in a simple $B-L$ extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model. The PQ symmetry is a remnant of the $B-L$ gauge symmetry at the…
While axions seem ubiquitous in critical string theories, whether they might survive in any string theoretic description of nature is a difficult question. With some mild assumptions, one can frame the issues in the case that there is an…
Deriving the Yukawa couplings and the resulting fermion masses and mixing angles of the Standard Model (SM) from a more fundamental theory remains one of the central outstanding problems in theoretical high-energy physics. It has long been…
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 $U(2)$…
We propose a model with a U(1)_A x U(1)_B gauge symmetry which contains topological strings carrying magnetic flux under each of the U(1)s. By calculating the tension of the first few low energy strings we show that bound states, containing…
We show that the strong CP problem is solved in a large class of compactifications of string theory. The Peccei-Quinn mechanism solves the strong CP problem if the CP-breaking effects of the ultraviolet completion of gravity and of QCD are…
Any would-be Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry is vulnerable to various types of explicit breaking. It has long been recognized that these can disrupt the axion solution to the strong CP problem. There have also been suggestions that, under…
We study baryons of arbitrary isospin in a stringy holographic QCD model. In this D4-D8 holographic setting, the flavor symmetry is promoted to a gauge symmetry in the bulk, and produces, as KK modes of the gauge field, pions and spin one…
We show that the required high quality of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry can be naturally explained in the aligned QCD axion models where the QCD axion arises from multiple axions with decay constants much smaller than the axion window, e.g.,…
When axionic strings carry a global charge, domain walls bounded by such strings may not be allowed to decay completely. This happens in particular in some models where a composite axion-like particle is the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson of…
We construct an anomaly-free extension of the left-right symmetric model, where the maximal flavor group is gauged and anomaly cancellation is guaranteed by adding new vectorlike fermion states. We address the question of the lowest allowed…
Modular transformations of string theory (including the well-known stringy dualities) play a crucial role in the discussion of discrete flavor symmetries in the Standard Model. They are at the origin of CP transformations and provide a…
We attempt to identify a phenomenologically viable solution to the strong $CP$ problem in which the axion is composed entirely out of Standard Model fermion species. The axion consists predominantly of the $\eta'$ meson with a minuscule…