Surveys in Differential Geometry

Volume 15 (2010)

Yukawa couplings in F-theory and non-commutative geometry

Pages: 37 – 98

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4310/SDG.2010.v15.n1.a3

Authors

Sergio Cecotti (Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, Trieste, Italy)

Miranda C. N. Cheng (Jefferson Physical Laboratory, Harvard University)

Abstract

We consider Yukawa couplings generated by a configuration of intersecting seven-branes in F-theory. In configurations with a single interaction point and no fluxes turned on, the Yukawa matrices have rank one. This is no longer true when the three-form H-flux is turned on, which is generically the case for F-theory compactifications on Calabi-Yau fourfolds. In the presence of H-fluxes, the Yukawa coupling is computed using a non-commutative deformation of holomorphic Chern-Simons theory (and its reduction to seven-branes) and subsequently the rank of the Yukawa matrix changes. Such fluxes give rise to a hierarchical structure in the Yukawa matrix in F-theory GUTs of the type which has recently been proposed as a resolution of the flavor hierarchy problem.

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Published 1 January 2010