CAREER: Effective Field Theories from String Compactification

职业：弦紧化的有效场论

• 批准号: 1452037
• 负责人: Jonathan Heckman
• 金额: $ 40万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-07-01 至 2017-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1452037&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Effective; Field; Theories; String

This award funds the research activities of Professor Jonathan Heckman at the University of North Carolina (UNC)at Chapel Hill. This research will focus on using string theory to understand the workings of Nature at the shortest distance scales. Strings continue to have significant impact on theoretical physics, with interdisciplinary connections ranging from the physics of subatomic particles to pure mathematics. One of the most important open issues is how to connect this framework to experimentally verified theories of subatomic particles. This project aims to use the geometry of extra dimensions predicted by string theory to construct and study theoretical models of relevance both for theories of subatomic particles, and for more formal mathematical applications.The education and outreach efforts of this program will introduce students to the power of geometric methods in theoretical physics. 1) At the postdoc and graduate level, the PI will maintain a collaborative research environment. 2) The PI will develop a course on geometric methods in high energy theory. 3) At the undergraduate level, the PI will advise students on geometric and computational aspects of string theory through the UNC REU program on computational methods in physics held in his department. 4) The PI will work closely with the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center to develop a set of outreach modules aimed at conveying the broad range of energy scales which are actively being investigated by high energy theorists and experimentalists.The technical components of this program will focus on the development of new tools in the study of string compactification at strong coupling, and the resulting low energy effective field theories. Particular emphasis will be placed on compactifications of F-theory. This will entail developing the correspondence between the open string degrees of freedom in the worldvolume theory of intersecting seven-branes, and closed string degrees of freedom captured by elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau manifolds. Additional components will entail the development of specific string-motivated scenarios for physics beyond the Standard Models of particle physics and cosmology. Particle physics applications will include the study of kinetic mixing with a strongly coupled extra sector. Cosmology applications will include the development of inflationary reheating scenarios coupled to concrete stringy particle physics models. This project will also focus on using the geometry of F-theory compactifications as a tool to classify and study superconformal field theories (SCFTs) in diverse dimensions. This will include a classification of 6D SCFTs, the construction of new 4D N = 1 SCFTs from D3-brane probes of singular Calabi-Yau fourfold geometries, and the development of 2D SCFTs with N = (0,2) supersymmetry from compactification on singular elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau fivefolds.

该奖项资助北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校 (UNC) 乔纳森·赫克曼 (Jonathan Heckman) 教授的研究活动。这项研究将侧重于利用弦理论来理解自然在最短距离尺度上的运作方式。弦继续对理论物理学产生重大影响，它具有从亚原子粒子物理学到纯数学的跨学科联系。最重要的开放问题之一是如何将该框架与经过实验验证的亚原子粒子理论联系起来。该项目旨在利用弦理论预测的额外维度几何来构建和研究与亚原子粒子理论和更正式的数学应用相关的理论模型。该项目的教育和推广工作将向学生介绍这种力量理论物理中的几何方法。 1）在博士后和研究生层面，PI将维持一个协作研究环境。 2）PI将开发高能理论几何方法课程。 3) 在本科阶段，PI 将通过他所在系举办的北卡罗来纳大学 REU 物理计算方法项目向学生提供弦理论的几何和计算方面的建议。 4) PI 将与莫尔黑德天文馆和科学中心密切合作，开发一套外展模块，旨在传达高能理论家和实验家正在积极研究的广泛能量尺度。该计划的技术组成部分将重点关注强耦合下弦致密化研究新工具的开发，以及由此产生的低能有效场论。将特别强调 F 理论的紧凑化。这将需要开发相交七膜的世界体积理论中的开弦自由度与椭圆纤维卡拉比-丘流形捕获的闭弦自由度之间的对应关系。其他组件将需要开发超出粒子物理和宇宙学标准模型的特定弦驱动物理场景。粒子物理应用将包括研究具有强耦合额外扇区的动力学混合。宇宙学应用将包括与具体的弦粒子物理模型相结合的暴胀再加热场景的开发。该项目还将重点使用 F 理论紧化几何作为分类和研究不同维度超共形场论 (SCFT) 的工具。这将包括 6D SCFT 的分类、从奇异 Calabi-Yau 四重几何形状的 D3 膜探针构建新的 4D N = 1 SCFT，以及通过奇异紧致化开发具有 N = (0,2) 超对称性的 2D SCFT椭圆形纤维 Calabi-Yau 五倍。