Browsing by Subject "String theory."
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Item Automated systematic generation and exploration of flat direction phenomenology in free fermionic heterotic string theory.(2014-06-11) Greenwald, Jared.; Cleaver, Gerald B.; Physics.; Baylor University. Dept. of Physics.Any good physical theory must resolve current experimental data as well as offer predictions for potential searches in the future. The Standard Model of particle physics, Grand Unified Theories, Minimal Supersymmetric Models and Supergravity are all attempts to provide such a framework. However, they all lack the ability to predict many of the parameters that each of the theories utilize. String theory may yield a solution to this naturalness (or self-predictiveness) problem as well as offer a unified theory of gravity. Studies in particle physics phenomenology based on perturbative low energy analysis of various string theories can help determine the candidacy of such models. After a review of principles and problems leading up to our current understanding of the universe, we will discuss some of the best particle physics model building techniques that have been developed using string theory. This will culminate in the introduction of a novel approach to a computational, systematic analysis of the various physical phenomena that arise from these string models. We focus on the necessary assumptions, complexity and open questions that arise while making a fully-automated flat at direction analysis program.Item Initial systematic investigations of the weakly coupled free fermionic heterotic string landscape statistics.(2011-09-14) Renner, Timothy, 1984-; Cleaver, Gerald B.; Physics.; Baylor University. Dept. of Physics.A C++ framework was constructed with the explicit purpose of systematically generating string models using the Weakly Coupled Free Fermionic Heterotic String (WCFFHS) method. The software, optimized for speed, generality, and ease of use, has been used to conduct preliminary systematic investigations of WCFFHS vacua. Documentation for this framework is provided in the Appendix. After an introduction to theoretical and computational aspects of WCFFHS model build- ing, a study of ten-dimensional WCFFHS models is presented. Degeneracies among equivalent expressions of each of the known models are investigated and classified. A study of more phenomenologically realistic four-dimensional models based on the well known “NAHE” set is then presented, with statistics being reported on gauge content, matter representations, and space-time supersymmetries. The final study is a parallel to the NAHE study in which a variation of the NAHE set is systematically extended and examined statistically. Special attention is paid to models with “mirroring” — identical observable and hidden sector gauge groups and matter representations.Item The landscape of free fermionic gauge models.(2014-06-11) Moore, Douglas G., 1988-; Cleaver, Gerald B.; Physics.; Baylor University. Dept. of Physics.A software framework is developed to systematically construct a particular class of weakly coupled free fermionic heterotic string models, dubbed gauge models. In their purest form, these models are maximally supersymmetric (N = 4), and thus only contain superpartners in their matter sector. This feature makes their systematic construction particularly efficient, and they are thus useful in their simplicity. We first provide a brisk introduction to heterotic strings and the spin-structure construction of free fermionic models. Three systematic surveys are then presented, and we conjecture that these surveys are exhaustive modulo redundancies. Finally we present a collection of metaheuristic algorithms for searching the landscape for models with a user-specified spectrum of phenomenological properties, e.g. gauge group and number of spacetime supersymmetries. Such algorithms provide the groundwork for extended generic free fermionic surveys.Item Orbifold branes in string theory and their applications to cosmology.(2011-09-14) Devin, Michael J.; Wang, Anzhong.; Physics.; Baylor University. Dept. of Physics.This dissertation contains two distinct compactification schemes of 10-dimensional string theory, as well as some of the implications of one of these schemes for string cosmology. The first half of this work begins with a brief overview of cosmology and goes through constructing and then analyzing the first model, inspired by the work of Santos and Wang. The second part consists of an attempt to construct similar models using the the popular warped conifold compactification scheme, as well as an appendix with a variant of the first model and its derivation. The work concludes with the observation that the latter attempt does not admit solutions of the same form, and that the variant model in the appendix is degenerate to previously studied KK-type models.