Origin of Abelian gauge symmetries in heterotic/F-theory duality

Journal Article · Thu Apr 07 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Journal of High Energy Physics (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2016)041· OSTI ID:1327295

Cvetič, Mirjam ^[1]; Grassi, Antonella ^[2]; Klevers, Denis ^[3]; Poretschkin, Maximilian ^[4]; Song, Peng ^[4]

---

1. Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Univ. of Maribor (Slovenia). Center for Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6396, U.S.A.
2. Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States). Dept. of Mathematics
3. European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva (Switzerland). Theory Group
4. Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy

Here, we study aspects of heterotic/F-theory duality for compactifications with Abelian gauge symmetries. We consider F-theory on general Calabi-Yau manifolds with a rank one Mordell-Weil group of rational sections. By rigorously performing the stable degeneration limit in a class of toric models, and also derive both the Calabi-Yau geometry and the spectral cover describing the vector bundle in the heterotic dual theory. We carefully investigate the spectral cover employing the group law on the elliptic curve in the heterotic theory. We find in explicit examples that there are three different classes of heterotic duals that have U(1) factors in their low energy effective theories: split spectral covers describing bundles with S(U(m) x U(1)) structure group, spectral covers containing torsional sections that seem to give rise to bundles with SU(m) x Z_k structure group and bundles with purely non-Abelian structure groups having a centralizer in E_8 containing a U(1) factor. In the former two cases, it is required that the elliptic fibration on the heterotic side has a non-trivial Mordell-Weil group. And while the number of geometrically massless U(1)'s is determined entirely by geometry on the F-theory side, on the heterotic side the correct number of U(1)'s is found by taking into account a Stuckelberg mechanism in the lower-dimensional effective theory. Finally, in geometry, this corresponds to the condition that sections in the two half K3 surfaces that arise in the stable degeneration limit of F-theory can be glued together globally.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0013528
• OSTI ID: 1327295
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 22605229
• Journal Information: Journal of High Energy Physics (Online), Journal Name: Journal of High Energy Physics (Online) Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 2016; ISSN 1029-8479
• Publisher: Springer Berlin
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
F-Theory
M-Theory
String Duality
Superstrings and Heterotic Strings