We determine the N = 1 low energy effective action for compactifications of type IIB string theory on compact Calabi-Yau orientifolds in the presence of background fluxes from a Kaluza-Klein reduction. The analysis is performed for Calabi-Yau threefolds which admit an isometric and holomorphic involution. We explicitly compute the Kähler potential, the superpotential and the gauge kinetic functions and check the consistency with N = 1 supergravity. We find a new class of no-scale Kähler potentials and show that their structure can be best understood in terms of a dual formulation where some of the chiral multiplets are replaced by linear multiplets. For O3-and O7-planes the scalar potential is expressed in terms of a superpotential while for O5-and O9-planes also a D-term and a massive linear multiplet can be present. The relation with the associated F-theory compactifications is briefly discussed.

It has been conjectured that in theories consistent with quantum gravity infinite distances in field space coincide with an infinite tower of states becoming massless exponentially fast in the proper field distance. The complex-structure moduli space of Calabi-Yau manifolds is a good testing ground for this conjecture since it is known to encode quantum gravity physics. We study infinite distances in this setting and present new evidence for the above conjecture. Points in moduli space which are at infinite proper distance along any path are characterised by an infinite order monodromy matrix. We utilise the nilpotent orbit theorem to show that for a large class of such points the monodromy matrix generates an infinite orbit within the spectrum of BPS states. We identify an infinite tower of states with this orbit. Further, the theorem gives the local metric on the moduli space which can be used to show that the mass of the states decreases exponentially fast upon approaching the point. We also propose a reason for why infinite distances are related to infinite towers of states. Specifically, we present evidence that the infinite distance itself is an emergent quantum phenomenon induced by integrating out at one-loop the states that become massless. Concretely, we show that the behaviour of the field space metric upon approaching infinite distance can be recovered from integrating out the BPS states. Similarly, at infinite distance the gauge couplings of closed-string Abelian gauge symmetries vanish in a way which can be matched onto integrating out the infinite tower of charged BPS states. This presents evidence towards the idea that also the gauge theory weak-coupling limit can be thought of as emergent.

The N = 1 effective action for generic type IIA Calabi-Yau orientifolds in the presence of background fluxes is computed from a Kaluza-Klein reduction. The Kähler potential, the gauge kinetic functions and the flux-induced superpotential are determined in terms of geometrical data of the Calabi-Yau orientifold and the background fluxes. The moduli space is found to be a Kähler subspace of the N = 2 moduli space and shown to coincide with the moduli space arising in compactification of M-theory on a specific class of G 2 manifolds. The superpotential depends on all geometrical moduli and vanishes at leading order when background fluxes are turned off. The N = 1 chiral coordinates linearize the appropriate instanton actions such that instanton effects can lead to holomorphic corrections of the superpotential. Mirror symmetry between type IIA and type IIB orientifolds is shown to hold at the level of the effective action in the large volume -large complex structure limit.

We construct global F-theory GUT models on del Pezzo surfaces in compact Calabi-Yau fourfolds realized as complete intersections of two hypersurface constraints. The intersections of the GUT brane and the flavour branes as well as the gauge flux are described by the spectral cover construction. We consider a split S[U (4)×U (1) X ] spectral cover, which allows for the phenomenologically relevant Yukawa couplings and GUT breaking to the MSSM via hypercharge flux while preventing dimension-4 proton decay. General expressions for the massless spectrum, consistency conditions and a new method for the computation of curvature-induced tadpoles are presented. We also provide a geometric toolkit for further model searches in the framework of toric geometry. Finally, an explicit global model with three chiral generations and all required Yukawa couplings is defined on a Calabi-Yau fourfold which is fibered over the del Pezzo transition of the Fano threefold P 4 [4].

The existence of Abelian gauge symmetries in four-dimensional F-theory compactifications depends on the global geometry of the internal Calabi-Yau four-fold and has important phenomenological consequences. We study conceptual and phenomenological aspects of such Uð1Þ symmetries along the Coulomb and the Higgs branch. As one application we examine Abelian gauge factors arising after a certain global restriction of the Tate model that goes beyond a local spectral cover analysis. In SUð5Þ grand unified theory (GUT) models this mechanism enforces a global Uð1Þ X symmetry that prevents dimension-4 proton decay and allows for an identification of candidate right-handed neutrinos. We invoke a detailed account of the singularities of Calabi-Yau four-folds and their mirror duals starting from an underlying E 8 and E 7 Â Uð1Þ enhanced Tate model. The global resolutions and deformations of these singularities can be used as the appropriate framework to analyze F-theory GUT models.