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Andrei Constantin

Publications and source records attributed to Andrei Constantin.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2022

Intelligent Explorations of the String Theory Landscape

The goal of identifying the Standard Model of particle physics and its extensions within string theory has been one of the principal driving forces in string phenomenology. Recently, the incorporation of artificial intelligence in string theory and certain theoretical advancements have brought to light unexpected solutions to mathematical hurdles that have so far hindered progress in this direction. In this review we focus on model building efforts in the context of the $E_8\times E_8$ heterotic string compactified on smooth Calabi-Yau threefolds and discuss several areas in which machine learning is expected to make a difference.

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arXiv2022

Recent Developments in Line Bundle Cohomology and Applications to String Phenomenology

Vector bundle cohomology represents a key ingredient for string phenomenology, being associated with the massless spectrum arising in string compactifications on smooth compact manifolds. Although standard algorithmic techniques exist for performing cohomology calculations, they are laborious and ill-suited for scanning over large sets of string compactifications to find those most relevant to particle physics. In this article we review some recent progress in deriving closed-form expressions for line bundle cohomology and discuss some applications to string phenomenology.

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arXiv2022

Geodesics in the extended Kähler cone of Calabi-Yau threefolds

We present a detailed study of the effective cones of Calabi-Yau threefolds with $h^{1,1}=2$, including the possible types of walls bounding the Kähler cone and a classification of the intersection forms arising in the geometrical phases. For all three normal forms in the classification we explicitly solve the geodesic equation and use this to study the evolution near Kähler cone walls and across flop transitions in the context of M-theory compactifications. In the case where the geometric regime ends at a wall beyond which the effective cone continues, the geodesics "crash" into the wall, signaling a breakdown of the M-theory supergravity approximation. For illustration, we characterise the structure of the extended Kähler and effective cones of all $h^{1,1}=2$ threefolds from the CICY and Kreuzer-Skarke lists, providing a rich set of examples for studying topology change in string theory. These examples show that all three cases of intersection form are realised and suggest that isomorphic flops and infinite flop sequences are common phenomena.

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arXiv2021

String Model Building, Reinforcement Learning and Genetic Algorithms

We investigate reinforcement learning and genetic algorithms in the context of heterotic Calabi-Yau models with monad bundles. Both methods are found to be highly efficient in identifying phenomenologically attractive three-family models, in cases where systematic scans are not feasible. For monads on the bi-cubic Calabi-Yau either method facilitates a complete search of the environment and leads to similar sets of previously unknown three-family models.

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arXiv2021

Evolving Heterotic Gauge Backgrounds: Genetic Algorithms versus Reinforcement Learning

The immensity of the string landscape and the difficulty of identifying solutions that match the observed features of particle physics have raised serious questions about the predictive power of string theory. Modern methods of optimisation and search can, however, significantly improve the prospects of constructing the standard model in string theory. In this paper we scrutinise a corner of the heterotic string landscape consisting of compactifications on Calabi-Yau three-folds with monad bundles and show that genetic algorithms can be successfully used to generate anomaly-free supersymmetric SO(10) GUTs with three families of fermions that have the right ingredients to accommodate the standard model. We compare this method with reinforcement learning and find that the two methods have similar efficacy but somewhat complementary characteristics.

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arXiv2021

Heterotic String Model Building with Monad Bundles and Reinforcement Learning

We use reinforcement learning as a means of constructing string compactifications with prescribed properties. Specifically, we study heterotic SO(10) GUT models on Calabi-Yau three-folds with monad bundles, in search of phenomenologically promising examples. Due to the vast number of bundles and the sparseness of viable choices, methods based on systematic scanning are not suitable for this class of models. By focusing on two specific manifolds with Picard numbers two and three, we show that reinforcement learning can be used successfully to explore monad bundles. Training can be accomplished with minimal computing resources and leads to highly efficient policy networks. They produce phenomenologically promising states for nearly 100% of episodes and within a small number of steps. In this way, hundreds of new candidate standard models are found.

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arXiv2021

Swampland Conjectures and Infinite Flop Chains

We investigate swampland conjectures for quantum gravity in the context of M-theory compactified on Calabi-Yau threefolds which admit infinite sequences of flops. Naively, the moduli space of such compactifications contains paths of arbitrary geodesic length traversing an arbitrarily large number of Kähler cones, along which the low-energy spectrum remains virtually unchanged. In cases where the infinite chain of Calabi-Yau manifolds involves only a finite number of isomorphism classes, the moduli space has an infinite discrete symmetry which relates the isomorphic manifolds connected by flops. This is a remnant of the 11D Poincare symmetry and consequently gauged, as it has to be by the no-global symmetry conjecture. The apparent contradiction with the swampland distance conjecture is hence resolved after dividing by this discrete symmetry. If the flop sequence involves infinitely many non-isomorphic manifolds, this resolution is no longer available. However, such a situation cannot occur if the Kawamata-Morrison conjecture for Calabi-Yau threefolds is true. Conversely, the swampland distance conjecture, when applied to infinite flop chains, implies the Kawamata-Morrison conjecture under a plausible assumption on the diameter of the Kähler cones.

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arXiv2020

Flops, Gromov-Witten Invariants and Symmetries of Line Bundle Cohomology on Calabi-Yau Three-folds

The zeroth line bundle cohomology on Calabi-Yau three-folds encodes information about the existence of flop transitions and the genus zero Gromov-Witten invariants. We illustrate this claim by studying several Picard number 2 Calabi-Yau three-folds realised as complete intersections in products of projective spaces. Many of these manifolds exhibit certain symmetries on the Picard lattice which preserve the zeroth cohomology.

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arXiv2020

Cohomology Chambers on Complex Surfaces and Elliptically Fibered Calabi-Yau Three-folds

We determine several classes of smooth complex projective surfaces on which Zariski decomposition can be combined with vanishing theorems to yield cohomology formulae for all line bundles. The obtained formulae express cohomologies in terms of divisor class intersections, and are adapted to the decomposition of the effective cone into Zariski chambers. In particular, we show this occurs on generalised del Pezzo surfaces, toric surfaces, and K3 surfaces. In the second part we use these surface results to derive formulae for all line bundle cohomology on a simple class of elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau three-folds. Computing such quantities is a crucial step in deriving the massless spectrum in string compactifications.

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arXiv2019

Index Formulae for Line Bundle Cohomology on Complex Surfaces

We conjecture and prove closed-form index expressions for the cohomology dimensions of line bundles on del Pezzo and Hirzebruch surfaces. Further, for all compact toric surfaces we provide a simple algorithm which allows expression of any line bundle cohomology in terms of an index. These formulae follow from general theorems we prove for a wider class of surfaces. In particular, we construct a map that takes any effective line bundle to a nef line bundle while preserving the zeroth cohomology dimension. For complex surfaces, these results explain the appearance of piecewise polynomial equations for cohomology and they are a first step towards understanding similar formulae recently obtained for Calabi-Yau three-folds.

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arXiv2019

Machine Learning Line Bundle Cohomology

We investigate different approaches to machine learning of line bundle cohomology on complex surfaces as well as on Calabi-Yau three-folds. Standard function learning based on simple fully connected networks with logistic sigmoids is reviewed and its main features and shortcomings are discussed. It has been observed recently that line bundle cohomology can be described by dividing the Picard lattice into certain regions in each of which the cohomology dimension is described by a polynomial formula. Based on this structure, we set up a network capable of identifying the regions and their associated polynomials, thereby effectively generating a conjecture for the correct cohomology formula. For complex surfaces, we also set up a network which learns certain rigid divisors which appear in a recently discovered master formula for cohomology dimensions.

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arXiv2018

Counting String Theory Standard Models

We derive an approximate analytic relation between the number of consistent heterotic Calabi-Yau compactifications of string theory with the exact charged matter content of the standard model of particle physics and the topological data of the internal manifold: the former scaling exponentially with the number of Kahler parameters. This is done by an estimate of the number of solutions to a set of Diophantine equations representing constraints satisfied by any consistent heterotic string vacuum with three chiral massless families, and has been computationally checked to hold for complete intersection Calabi-Yau threefolds (CICYs) with up to seven Kahler parameters. When extrapolated to the entire CICY list, the relation gives about 10^23 string theory standard models; for the class of Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in toric varieties, it gives about 10^723 standard models.

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arXiv2018

Heterotic String Models on Smooth Calabi-Yau Threefolds

This thesis contributes with a number of topics to the subject of string compactifications. In the first half of the work, I discuss the Hodge plot of Calabi-Yau threefolds realised as hypersurfaces in toric varieties. The intricate structure of this plot is explained by the existence of certain webs of elliptic-K3 fibrations. Such manifolds arise from reflexive polytopes that can be cut into two parts along K3 slices. Any two half-polytopes over a given slice can be combined into a reflexive polytope. This fact, together with a remarkable relation on the additivity of Hodge numbers, give to the Hodge plot the appearance of a fractal. Moving on, I discuss a different type of web by looking at smooth $\mathbb{Z}_3$-quotients of complete intersection Calabi-Yau threefolds in products of projective spaces. In the second half of the work, I explore an algorithmic approach to constructing heterotic compactifications with holomorphic and polystable sums of line bundles over complete intersection Calabi-Yau threefolds that admit freely acting discrete symmetries. Such abelian bundles lead to $N=1$ GUT theories with gauge group $SU(5)\times U(4)$. The extra $U(1)$ symmetries are generically Green-Schwarz anomalous and survive in the low energy theory as global symmetries that constrain the allowed operators. The line bundle construction allows for a systematic computer search resulting in a plethora of models with one or more pairs of Higgs doublets and no exotic fields charged under the Standard Model group. In the last part of the thesis I focus on the case study of the tetraquadric threefold and address the question of the finiteness of the class of consistent and physically viable line bundle models on this manifold. Line bundle sums provide an accessible window into the moduli space of non-abelian bundles. I explore this moduli space around the abelian locus using monad bundles.

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arXiv2018

Formulae for Line Bundle Cohomology on Calabi-Yau Threefolds

We present closed form expressions for the ranks of all cohomology groups of holomorphic line bundles on several Calabi-Yau threefolds realised as complete intersections in products of projective spaces. The formulae have been obtained by systematising and extrapolating concrete calculations and they have been checked computationally. Although the intermediate calculations often involve laborious computations of ranks of Leray maps in the Koszul spectral sequence, the final results for cohomology follow a simple pattern. The space of line bundles can be divided into several different regions, and in each such region the ranks of all cohomology groups can be expressed as polynomials in the line bundle integers of degree at most three. The number of regions increases and case distinctions become more complicated for manifolds with a larger Picard number. We also find explicit cohomology formulae for several non-simply connected Calabi-Yau threefolds realised as quotients by freely acting discrete symmetries. More cases may be systematically handled by machine learning algorithms.

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arXiv2018

Calabi-Yau Threefolds With Small Hodge Numbers

We present a list of Calabi-Yau threefolds known to us, and with holonomy groups that are precisely SU(3), rather than a subgroup, with small Hodge numbers, which we understand to be those manifolds with height $(h^{1,1}+h^{2,1})\le 24$. With the completion of a project to compute the Hodge numbers of free quotients of complete intersection Calabi-Yau threefolds, most of which were computed in Refs. [1-3] and the remainder in Ref. [4], many new points have been added to the tip of the Hodge plot, updating the reviews by Davies and Candelas in Refs. [1, 5]. In view of this and other recent constructions of Calabi-Yau threefolds with small height, we have produced an updated list.

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arXiv2018

Matter Field Kahler Metric in Heterotic String Theory from Localisation

We propose an analytic method to calculate the matter field Kähler metric in heterotic compactifications on smooth Calabi-Yau three-folds with Abelian internal gauge fields. The matter field Kähler metric determines the normalisations of the ${\cal N}=1$ chiral superfields, which enter the computation of the physical Yukawa couplings. We first derive the general formula for this Kähler metric by a dimensional reduction of the relevant supergravity theory and find that its T-moduli dependence can be determined in general. It turns out that, due to large internal gauge flux, the remaining integrals localise around certain points on the compactification manifold and can, hence, be calculated approximately without precise knowledge of the Ricci-flat Calabi-Yau metric. In a final step, we show how this local result can be expressed in terms of the global moduli of the Calabi-Yau manifold. The method is illustrated for the family of Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces embedded in $\mathbb{P}^1\times\mathbb{P}^3$ and we obtain an explicit result for the matter field Kähler metric in this case.

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arXiv2016

Hodge Numbers for All CICY Quotients

We present a general method for computing Hodge numbers for Calabi-Yau manifolds realised as discrete quotients of complete intersections in products of projective spaces. The method relies on the computation of equivariant cohomologies and is illustrated for several explicit examples. In this way, we compute the Hodge numbers for all discrete quotients obtained in Braun's classification arXiv:1003.3235.

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