Reproducing Standard Model Fermion Masses and Mixing in String Theory: A Heterotic Line Bundle Study

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that specific heterotic string models compactified on Calabi-Yau manifolds can reproduce the Standard Model's fermion masses and mixing angles, providing a proof of principle for string-derived flavor physics.

Contribution

It identifies explicit heterotic string models with realistic flavor parameters, advancing the understanding of string theory's potential to explain SM fermion masses and mixing.

Findings

Reproduces quark and lepton masses accurately

Matches observed quark mixing parameters

Models are free of exotic fields and have a suppressed μ-term

Abstract

Deriving the Yukawa couplings and the resulting fermion masses and mixing angles of the Standard Model (SM) from a more fundamental theory remains one of the central outstanding problems in theoretical high-energy physics. It has long been recognised that string theory provides a framework within which this question can, at least in principle, be addressed. While substantial progress has been made in studying flavour physics in string compactifications over the past few decades, a concrete string construction that reproduces the full set of observed SM flavour parameters remains unknown. Here, we take a significant step in this direction by identifying two explicit $E_8 \times E_8$ heterotic string models compactified on a Calabi-Yau threefold with abelian, holomorphic, and poly-stable vector bundles with an (MS)SM spectrum. Subject to reasonable assumptions about the moduli, we show that these models reproduce the correct values of the quark and charged lepton masses, as well as the quark mixing parameters, at some point in their moduli spaces. The resulting four-dimensional theories are $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric, contain no exotic fields and realise a $\mu$-term suppressed to the electroweak scale. While the issues of moduli stabilisation and supersymmetry breaking are not addressed here, our main result constitutes a proof of principle: there exist choices of topology and moduli within heterotic string compactifications which allow for an MSSM spectrum with the correct flavour parameters.