Strong Coupling in F-theory and Geometrically Non-Higgsable Seven-branes

Abstract

Geometrically non-Higgsable seven-branes carry gauge sectors that cannot be broken by complex structure deformation, and there is growing evidence that such configurations are typical in F-theory. We study strongly coupled physics associated with these branes. Axiodilaton profiles are computed using Ramanujan's theories of elliptic functions to alternative bases, showing explicitly that the string coupling is order one in the vicinity of the brane; that it sources nilpotent $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ monodromy and therefore the associated brane charges are modular; and that essentially all F-theory compactifications have regions with order one string coupling. It is shown that non-perturbative $SU(3)$ and $SU(2)$ seven-branes are related to weakly coupled counterparts with D7-branes via deformation-induced Hanany-Witten moves on $(p,q)$ string junctions that turn them into fundamental open strings; only the former may exist for generic complex structure. D3-brane near these and the Kodaira type II seven-branes probe Argyres-Douglas theories. The BPS states of slightly deformed theories are shown to be dyonic string junctions.

33 pages. v2: version in Nuclear Physics B

References in corpus (8)

• T-Branes and Monodromy
• Non-Higgsable clusters for 4D F-theory models
• The F-theory geometry with most flux vacua
• Calabi-Yau threefolds with large h^{2, 1}
• ${\mathbb{P}}^1$-bundle bases and the prevalence of non-Higgsable structure in 4D F-theory models
• A Monte Carlo exploration of threefold base geometries for 4d F-theory vacua
• Geometric constraints in dual F-theory and heterotic string compactifications
• Statistics of Flux Vacua for Particle Physics

Cited by in corpus (19)

• Machine Learning in the String Landscape
• On String Theory Expectations for Photon Couplings to Axion-Like Particles
• On Algorithmic Universality in F-theory Compactifications
• Quantum Geometry of Resurgent Perturbative/Nonperturbative Relations
• Chiral 2d Theories from N=4 SYM with Varying Coupling
• Vacuum Selection from Cosmology on Networks of String Geometries
• Gauging Discrete Symmetries of $T_N$-theories in Five Dimensions
• Glueball Dark Matter revisited
• Non-Higgsable abelian gauge symmetry and F-theory on fiber products of rational elliptic surfaces
• Dark Glueballs and their Ultralight Axions
• On Axion Reheating in the String Landscape
• D(-1)-Instanton Superpotential In String Theory
• On the Scarcity of Weak Coupling in the String Landscape
• On the BPS Spectrum of the Rank-1 Minahan-Nemeschansky Theories
• $6$D Anomaly-Free Matter Spectrum in F-theory on Singular Spaces
• Dualities of Deformed $\mathcal{N}=2$ SCFTs from Link Monodromy on D3-brane States
• Faking Gauge Coupling Unification in String Theory
• A plethora of K3 metrics
• Glueball dark matter in non-standard cosmologies