Reproducing Standard Model fermion masses and mixing in string theory: A heterotic line bundle study
Year: 2026
Type: article
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 recognized 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 flavor physics in string compactifications over the past few decades, a concrete string construction that reproduces the full set of observed SM flavor parameters remains unknown. Here, we take a significant step in this direction by identifying two explicit E 8 × E 8 heterotic string models compactified on a Calabi-Yau threefold with Abelian, holomorphic, and polystable vector bundles with minimal supersymmetric (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 N = 1 supersymmetric, contain no exotic fields, and realize a μ -term suppressed to the electroweak scale. While the issues of moduli stabilization 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 flavor parameters.
DOI: 10.1103/fbdz-t73z
Institutions: University of Oxford, University of Birmingham
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7124290367