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arXiv · 2511.20458

F-theory Axiverse

Sebastian Vander Ploeg Fallon·James Halverson·Liam McAllister·Yunhao Zhu
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Abstract

We compute the couplings of Ramond-Ramond four-form axions in three ensembles of F-theory compactifications, with up to 181,200 axions. We work in the stretched K\"ahler cone, where $\alpha'$ corrections are plausibly controlled, and we use couplings to certain non-Abelian sectors as a proxy for couplings to photons. The axion masses, decay constants, and couplings to gauge sectors show striking universality across the ensembles. In particular, the axion-photon couplings grow with $h^{1,1}$, and models in our ensemble with $h^{1,1} \gtrsim$ 10,000 axions are in tension with helioscope constraints. Moreover, under mild assumptions about charged matter beyond the Standard Model, theories with $h^{1,1} \gtrsim$ 5,000 are in tension with Chandra measurements of X-ray spectra. This work is a first step toward understanding the phenomenology of quantum gravity theories with thousands of axions.

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Sebastian Vander Ploeg Fallon, James Halverson, Liam McAllister, Yunhao Zhu. 2025-11-25. F-theory Axiverse. https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.20458

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