Related papers: Axion Couplings in Heterotic String Theory
We present a QCD axion model where the couplings of the axion to nucleons, electrons, and muons are naturally suppressed because of the appropriate choice of the Peccei-Quinn charges of the Standard Model fermions. We reexamine…
The weakly coupled vacuum of $E_8\otimes E_8$ heterotic string theory remains an attractive scenario for phenomenolgy and cosmology. The particle spectrum is reviewed and the issues of gauge coupling unification, dilaton stabilization and…
We obtain an analytic solution for an axionic non-supersymmetric deformation of the warped deformed conifold. This allows us to study D-strings in the infrared limit of non-supersymmetric deformations of the Klebanov-Strassler background.…
We study early and late time signatures of both QCD axion strings and hyperlight axion strings (axiverse strings). We focus on charge deposition onto axion strings from electromagnetic fields and subsequent novel neutralizing mechanisms due…
We study gauge coupling unification in the presence of extra dimensions compactified at a few TeV. Achieving unification requires a large number of gauge boson Kaluza-Klein excitations lighter than the string scale, such that the…
We show that the axion coupling to photons can be enhanced in simple models with a single Peccei-Quinn field, if the gauge coupling unification is realized by a large kinetic mixing $\chi = {\cal O}(0.1)$ between hypercharge and unbroken…
Axions are hypothetical particles, proposed to account for the invariance of CP symmetry in quantum chromodynamics. While axions and axion-like-particles are well-motivated by string theory and beyond-Standard-Model extensions, they have…
We study the phenomenology of the 'companion-axion model' consisting of two coupled QCD axions. The second axion is required to rescue the Peccei-Quinn solution to the strong-CP problem from the effects of colored gravitational instantons.…
We search for a possible bosonic (i.e. non-supersymmetric) string/gauge theory correspondence by using IIB and 0B strings as a guide. Our construction is based on the low-energy bosonic string effective action modified by an extra form…
We propose gauging matrix models of string theory to eliminate unwanted non-singlet states. To this end we perform a discretised light-cone quantisation of large N gauge theory in 1+1 dimensions, with scalar or fermionic matter fields…
In the past, the axion-nucleon coupling has been calculated in the framework of SU(2) heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory up to third order in the chiral power counting. Here, we extend these earlier studies to the case of heavy baryon…
We study a family of unstable heterotic string theories in more than ten dimensions which are connected via tachyon condensation to the ten-dimensional supersymmetric vacuum of heterotic string theory with gauge group SO(32). Calculating…
In the mapping from four-dimensional gauge theories to string theory in $AdS$ space, many features of gauge theory can be described by branes wrapped in different ways on $\S^5$, $\RP^5$, or subspaces thereof. These include a baryon vertex…
We construct a string-inspired model, motivated by the flavored Peccei-Quinn (PQ) axions, as a useful bridge between flavor physics and string theory. The key feature is two anomalous gauged $U(1)$ symmetries, responsible for both the…
This is a pedagogical review article surveying the various approaches towards understanding gauge coupling unification within string theory. As is well known, one of the major problems confronting string phenomenology has been an apparent…
We embed a theory with Zprime gauge boson (related to extra U(1) gauge group) into a supersymmetric GUT theory based on SO(10). Two possible sequences of SO(10) breaking via VEVs of appropriate Higgs fields are considered. Gauge coupling…
Discrepancies in measurements of the QCD running coupling constant are consistent with a new vector gauge boson coupling to baryon number with strength aB~0.1. Upsilon decays constrain such a boson to have a mass greater than about 35 GeV.…
A generic prediction of string theory is the existence of many axion fields. It has recently been argued that many of these fields should be light and, like the well known QCD axion, lead to observable cosmological consequences. In this…
Light axion-like particles occur in many theories of beyond-Standard-Model physics, and may make up some or all of the universe's dark matter. One of the ways they can couple to the Standard Model is through the electromagnetic $F_{\mu\nu}…
The topological susceptibility of the QCD vacuum provides an understanding of $\theta$-vacua as vacua of a Chern-Simons gauge theory. In this way, it gives an immediate proof of the physicality of the boundary $\theta$-term. This makes the…