Journal of High Energy Physics (Dec 2017)
The toric SO(10) F-theory landscape
Abstract
Abstract Supergravity theories in more than four dimensions with grand unified gauge symmetries are an important intermediate step towards the ultraviolet completion of the Standard Model in string theory. Using toric geometry, we classify and analyze six-dimensional F-theory vacua with gauge group SO(10) taking into account Mordell-Weil U(1) and discrete gauge factors. We determine the full matter spectrum of these models, including charged and neutral SO(10) singlets. Based solely on the geometry, we compute all matter multiplicities and confirm the cancellation of gauge and gravitational anomalies independent of the base space. Particular emphasis is put on symmetry enhancements at the loci of matter fields and to the frequent appearance of superconformal points. They are linked to non-toric Kähler deformations which contribute to the counting of degrees of freedom. We compute the anomaly coefficients for these theories as well by using a base-independent blow-up procedure and superconformal matter transitions. Finally, we identify six-dimensional supergravity models which can yield the Standard Model with high-scale supersymmetry by further compactification to four dimensions in an Abelian flux background.
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