The effective action of N=1 Calabi-Yau orientifolds

TL;DR

This paper derives the N=1 low energy effective action for type IIB Calabi-Yau orientifold compactifications with fluxes, explicitly computing key functions and revealing new no-scale Kahler potentials with dual formulations.

Contribution

It provides the first explicit computation of the Kahler potential, superpotential, and gauge kinetic functions for these compactifications, including new no-scale structures and dual formulations.

Findings

Explicit Kahler potential, superpotential, and gauge kinetic functions derived.

Identification of a new class of no-scale Kahler potentials.

Dual formulation with linear multiplets offers deeper understanding.

Abstract

We determine the N=1 low energy effective action for compactifications of type IIB string theory on compact Calabi-Yau orientifolds in the presence of background fluxes from a Kaluza-Klein reduction. The analysis is performed for Calabi-Yau threefolds which admit an isometric and holomorphic involution. We explicitly compute the Kahler potential, the superpotential and the gauge kinetic functions and check the consistency with N=1 supergravity. We find a new class of no-scale Kahler potentials and show that their structure can be best understood in terms of a dual formulation where some of the chiral multiplets are replaced by linear multiplets. For O3- and O7-planes the scalar potential is expressed in terms of a superpotential while for O5- and O9-planes also a D-term and a massive linear multiplet can be present. The relation with the associated F-theory compactifications is briefly discussed.