• DOI:10.1088/1126-6708/2009/01/058
• Corpus ID: 119309173

GUTs and exceptional branes in F-theory — I

@article{Beasley2009GUTsAE,
  title={GUTs and exceptional branes in F-theory — I},
  author={Christopher Edward Beasley and Jonathan J. Heckman and Cumrun Vafa},
  journal={Journal of High Energy Physics},
  year={2009},
  volume={2009},
  pages={058-058}
}

• C. Beasley, J. Heckman, C. Vafa
• Published 25 February 2008
• Mathematics
• Journal of High Energy Physics

Motivated by potential phenomenological applications, we develop the necessary tools for building GUT models in F-theory. This approach is quite flexible because the local geometrical properties of singularities in F-theory compactifications encode the physical content of the theory. In particular, we show how geometry determines the gauge group, matter content and Yukawa couplings of a given model. It turns out that these features are beautifully captured by a four-dimensional topologically twisted = 4 theory which has been coupled to a surface defect theory on which chiral matter can propagate. From the vantagepoint of the four-dimensional topological theory, these defects are surface operators. Specific intersection points of these defects lead to Yukawa couplings. We also find that the unfolding of the singularity in the F-theory geometry precisely matches to properties of the topological theory with a defect.