Blowing-Up the Four-Dimensional Z_3 Orientifold

TL;DR

This paper explores the process of blowing up a four-dimensional Z_3 orientifold, analyzing how nonzero VEVs of twisted sector moduli affect gauge symmetry, matter content, and mass spectra while maintaining supersymmetry.

Contribution

It provides explicit constructions of flat directions, determines the FI term, and analyzes the impact on gauge groups and matter spectra in the blown-up orientifold.

Findings

FI term depends linearly on VEVs of blowing-up modes

Non-Abelian matter fields acquire VEVs, breaking some gauge symmetries

Restabilization reduces the number of matter families

Abstract

We study the blowing-up of the four-dimensional Z_3 orientifold of Angelantonj, Bianchi, Pradisi, Sagnotti and Stanev (ABPSS) by giving nonzero vacuum expectation values (VEV's) to the twisted sector moduli blowing-up modes. The blowing-up procedure induces a Fayet-Iliopoulos (FI) term for the ``anomalous'' U(1), whose magnitude depends linearly on the VEV's of the blowing-up modes. To preserve the N=1 supersymmetry, non-Abelian matter fields are forced to acquire nonzero VEV's, thus breaking (some of) the non-Abelian gauge structure and decoupling some of the matter fields. We determine the form of the FI term, construct explicit examples of (non-Abelian) D and F flat directions, and determine the surviving gauge groups of the restabilized vacua. We also determine the mass spectra, for which the restabilization reduces the number of families.