# Spinor-vector duality and sterile neutrinos in string derived models

## TL;DR

This paper explores how string theory models can naturally include sterile neutrinos and predicts an additional gauge symmetry that might be detectable in current collider experiments.

## Contribution

It demonstrates the use of spinor-vector duality in heterotic-string models to maintain an unbroken extra U(1) gauge symmetry at low energies.

## Key findings

- Sterile neutrinos are compatible with certain string models.
- An extra Z' gauge symmetry can remain unbroken down to low scales.
- Potential collider signatures of the additional gauge symmetry.

## Abstract

The MiniBooNE collaboration found evidence for the existence of sterile neutrinos, at a mass scale comparable to the active left-handed neutrinos. While sterile neutrinos arise naturally in large volume string scenarios, they are more difficult to accommodate in heterotic-string derived models that reproduce the GUT embedding of the Standard Model particles. Sterile neutrinos in heterotic-string models imply the existence of an additional Abelian gauge symmetry at low scales, possibly within reach of contemporary colliders. I discuss the construction of string derived Z' models that utilise the spinor-vector duality to guarantee that the extra $U(1)_{Z^\prime}$ symmetry can remain unbroken down to low scales.