Geometry of Particle Physics

We consider semi-direct gauge mediation models of supersymmetry breaking where the messengers are composite fields and their supersymmetric mass is naturally generated through quartic superpotential couplings. We show that such composite messenger models can be easily embedded in quiver gauge theories arising from D-branes at Calabi-Yau singularities, and argue that semi-direct gauge mediation is in fact a very natural option for supersymmetry breaking in D-brane models. We p...

We motivate and apply a bottom-up approach to string phenomenology, which aims to construct the Standard Model as a decoupled world-volume theory on a D3-brane. As a concrete proposal for such a construction, we consider a single probe D3-brane on a partial resolution of a del Pezzo 8 singularity. The resulting world-volume theory reproduces the field content and interactions of the MSSM, however with a somewhat extended Higgs sector. An attractive feature of our approach is ...

We analyze the problem of the hierarchy of masses and mixings in orientifold realizations of the Standard Model. We find bottom-up brane configurations that can generate such hierarchies.

We present a Z_2 x Z_2 orbifold compactification of the E_8 x E_8 heterotic string which gives rise to the exact chiral MSSM spectrum. The GUT breaking SU(5) to SU(3)_C x SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y is realized by modding out a freely acting symmetry. This ensures precision gauge coupling unification. Further, it allows us to break the GUT group without switching on flux in hypercharge direction, such that the standard model gauge bosons can remain massless when the orbifold singulariti...

M5 branes on a D-type ALE singularity display various phenomena that introduce additional massless degrees of freedom. The M5 branes are known to fractionate on a D-type singularity. Whenever two fractional M5 branes coincide, tensionless strings arise. Therefore, these systems do not admit a low-energy Lagrangian description. Focusing on the 6-dimensional N=(1,0) world-volume theories on the M5 branes, the vacuum moduli space has two branches were either the scalar fields in...

Preliminary Remarks. Gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking. Gravity mediated supersymmetry breaking. Anomaly mediated supersymmetry breaking. Gaugino mediated supersymmetry breaking. Braneworld supersymmetry breaking. Conclusions.

These notes are an expanded version of a short course of lectures given for graduate students in particle physics at Oxford. The level was intended to be appropriate for students in both experimental and theoretical particle physics.The purpose is to present an elementary and self-contained introduction to SUSY that follows on, relatively straightforwardly, from graduate-level courses in relativistic quantum mechanics and introductory quantum field theory. The notation adopte...

We discuss the appearance of non-supersymmetric compactifications with exactly the Standard Model (SM) at low energies, in the context of IIB orientifold constructions with D5 branes intersecting at angles on the $T^4$ tori, of the orientifold of $T^4 \times (\C /Z_N)$. We discuss constructions where the Standard Model embedding is considering within four, five and six stacks of D5 branes. The appearance of the three generation observable Standard Model at low energies is...

In this writing we shall address certain beautiful inter-relations between the construction of 4-dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories and resolution of algebraic singularities, from the perspective of String Theory. We review in some detail the requisite background in both the mathematics, such as orbifolds, symplectic quotients and quiver representations, as well as the physics, such as gauged linear sigma models, geometrical engineering, Hanany-Witten setups and D-bran...

We give a concise geometric recipe for constructing D-brane gauge theories that exhibit metastable SUSY breaking. We present two simple examples in terms of branes at deformed CY singularities.