From the Ground State of String Theory to the Standard Model

University Of Utah, Salt Lake City UT

Investigators

Abstract

The proposed research will focus on finding a theory beyond the standard model of elementary particle physics that will be capable of explaining quantities such as the pattern of quark and lepton masses. String theory is a potential candidate theory to solve this problem, however the theory has many degenerate ground states labeled by the value of the moduli fields. Thus the predictability of the masses problem is replaced by being able to determine the value of the moduli fields. The goal of this research effort is to compute the value of all the moduli fields in a realistic model. The approach is to introduce warped space times that naturally generate large hierarchies of physical scales. The PI proposes to determine the properties of the background geometry of string compactifications in the presence of fluxes. This might make it possible to determine the nature of broken supersymmetry and allow a determination of the cosmological constant.