Final Report Summary - FUSS (Flavor, Unification and Symmetries from Strings)
The research program “Flavour, Unification and symmetries from strings” is framed in High Energy Physics and more precisely in the subfield of string phenomenology and model building. The goal is to develop the potential of string theory to produce models of Particle Physics and Cosmology, as well as to understand the interplay between Quantum Gravity and the phenomenology of such models.
The initial lines of research are focused in analysing the string theory models known as type II/F-theory vacua, with emphasis in models where nature’s gauge interactions are unified (GUT models). The main goal is to achieve significant developments by analysing the physics of these models, and in particular by understanding the flavour problem of Particle Physics in this context. It is expected that a specific flavour structure is imposed by the existence of discrete symmetries. The program aims to unveil such structure and to classify those characteristic signatures that could be detected in current accelerator experiments.
During the development of the project an important new front of activity has been developed: a renewed interest in models of large field inflation and their realisation in string theory. Such activity, triggered by recent experimental data, has been to good extent led by the scientific team of this research program. The team has performed forefront research in this topic aiming to connect string theory to current and future empiric data, and also due to its relation to the project keywords.
The scientific progress for the whole period of the project has been very satisfactory and has given rise to fifteen different publications in peer-reviewed international journals, with more in preparation. Advances have been made in all the above research lines. Work on Yukawa couplings in F-theory GUT models has shown that it is possible to obtain a fully realistic spectrum of fermion masses, which was the main motivation for considering them. Hence this result justifies the whole program of F-theory GUTs. The research on discrete symmetries describes the formalism behind non-Abelian discrete gauge symmetries from a general viewpoint, something not achieved before. Finally, a new framework has been developed to describe models of large field inflation. This foundational work on the subject has revealed to be very fruitful, and its applications and consequences have been explored in a series of subsequent works.
The project results have had a significant impact in the scientific community of string theory, and in particular within string phenomenology. The fellow has been invited to give seventeen plenary talks in international conferences during the project, including the prestigious conference “Strings” held at the University of Princeton. Finally the CIG grant has served to support two international conferences in the fellow’s host research institute.
The future prospects for the fellow and his team look very promising. He has been successfully integrated in his host institution, obtaining a permanent position that should start before the end of 2015. He also has succeeded in supervising one PhD thesis ended in 2014 and is currently taking care of five more.
The initial lines of research are focused in analysing the string theory models known as type II/F-theory vacua, with emphasis in models where nature’s gauge interactions are unified (GUT models). The main goal is to achieve significant developments by analysing the physics of these models, and in particular by understanding the flavour problem of Particle Physics in this context. It is expected that a specific flavour structure is imposed by the existence of discrete symmetries. The program aims to unveil such structure and to classify those characteristic signatures that could be detected in current accelerator experiments.
During the development of the project an important new front of activity has been developed: a renewed interest in models of large field inflation and their realisation in string theory. Such activity, triggered by recent experimental data, has been to good extent led by the scientific team of this research program. The team has performed forefront research in this topic aiming to connect string theory to current and future empiric data, and also due to its relation to the project keywords.
The scientific progress for the whole period of the project has been very satisfactory and has given rise to fifteen different publications in peer-reviewed international journals, with more in preparation. Advances have been made in all the above research lines. Work on Yukawa couplings in F-theory GUT models has shown that it is possible to obtain a fully realistic spectrum of fermion masses, which was the main motivation for considering them. Hence this result justifies the whole program of F-theory GUTs. The research on discrete symmetries describes the formalism behind non-Abelian discrete gauge symmetries from a general viewpoint, something not achieved before. Finally, a new framework has been developed to describe models of large field inflation. This foundational work on the subject has revealed to be very fruitful, and its applications and consequences have been explored in a series of subsequent works.
The project results have had a significant impact in the scientific community of string theory, and in particular within string phenomenology. The fellow has been invited to give seventeen plenary talks in international conferences during the project, including the prestigious conference “Strings” held at the University of Princeton. Finally the CIG grant has served to support two international conferences in the fellow’s host research institute.
The future prospects for the fellow and his team look very promising. He has been successfully integrated in his host institution, obtaining a permanent position that should start before the end of 2015. He also has succeeded in supervising one PhD thesis ended in 2014 and is currently taking care of five more.