Heterotic non-abelian orbifolds

Abstract

We perform the first systematic analysis of particle spectra obtained from heterotic string compactifications on non-Abelian toroidal orbifolds. After developing a new technique to compute the particle spectrum in the case of standard embedding based on higher dimensional supersymmetry, we compute the Hodge numbers for all recently classified 331 non-Abelian orbifold geometries which yield 1 supersymmetry for heterotic compactifications. Surprisingly, most Hodge numbers follow the empiric pattern h(1,1) - h(2,1) = 0 mod 6, which might be related to the number of three standard model generations. Furthermore, we study the fundamental groups in order to identify the possibilities for non-local gauge symmetry breaking. Three examples are discussed in detail: the simplest non-Abelian orbifold S3 and two more elaborate examples, T7 and Δ(27), which have only one untwisted Kähler and no untwisted complex structure modulus. Such models might be especially interesting in the context of no-scale supergravity. Finally, we briefly discuss the case of orbifolds with vanishing Euler numbers in the context of enhanced (spontaneously broken) supersymmetry. © 2013 SISSA.