We study the modular symmetry in four-dimensional low-energy effective field theory, which is derived from type IIB magnetized D-brane models and type IIA intersecting D-brane models. We analyze modular symmetric behaviors of perturbative terms and non-perturbative terms induced by D-brane instanton effects. Anomalies are also investigated and such an analysis on anomalies suggests corrections in effective field theory.
1. Introduction
T-duality in string theory relates a theory with the compact space size to another theory with the size . Thus, T-duality is a quite non-trivial symmetry in string theory. Indeed, one type of superstring theory is related to a different type of superstring theory by T-duality. (For a review, see Ref. [1].)
T-duality also has a remnant in four-dimensional (4D) low-energy effective field theory derived from superstring theory. In particular, 4D low-energy effective field theory of heterotic string theory with a certain compactification is invariant under the modular transformation of the moduli
,
with
and
, at least at the perturbative level. This is a symmetry inside a 4D effective field theory, but not between two theories. We refer to this symmetry inside one effective field theory as the modular symmetry in order to distinguish it from the T-duality between two theories.
The modular symmetry plays an important role in studies on 4D low-energy effective field theory of heterotic string theory. For example, moduli stabilization and supersymmetry breaking were studied with the assumption that non-perturbative effects are also modular invariant [2,3]. Moreover, anomalies of this symmetry were analyzed [4,5]. The anomaly structure in heterotic string theory has a definite structure.1 Their phenomenological applications were also studied (see, e.g., Refs. [7,8]). In addition, the modular invariant potential of the modulus was studied for cosmic inflation [9]. Thus, the modular symmetry in 4D low-energy effective field theory is important from several viewpoints: theoretical, particle physics, and cosmology.
In this paper, we study the modular symmetry in 4D low-energy effective field theory derived from type II superstring theory. In particular, we consider the 4D low-energy effective field theory derived from type IIB magnetized D-brane models and type IIA intersecting D-brane models. Their 4D low-energy effective field theories have been studied before (for a review, see Refs. [10,11]). We study the modular symmetry at perturbative level in their low-energy effective field theories. The T-duality of Yukawa couplings between magnetized D-brane models and intersecting D-brane models was studied in Ref. [12]. This is very useful for our purpose. We extend such analysis to show modular transformation of 4D low-energy effective field theory including three-point and higher-order couplings. Also, their anomalies are examined and the anomaly structure could provide non-trivial information like those in heterotic string theory. Furthermore, we discuss non-perturbative effects.
The paper is organized as follows. In Sect. 2, we study the modular symmetry of Yukawa couplings and higher-order couplings at the perturbative level in the 4D low-energy effective field theory derived from type IIB magnetized D-brane models. In Sect. 3, we study supergravity theory derived from type IIA intersecting D-brane models. In particular, we investigate the anomaly structure of the modular symmetry. In Sect. 4, we study the modular symmetry of non-perturbative terms induced by D-brane instanton effects. Section 5 provides the conclusions.
2. Modular symmetry
Here, we study the modular symmetry in the 4D low-energy effective field theory derived from type IIB magnetized D-brane models.
2.1. Magnetized D-brane models
We start with magnetized D9-brane models in type IIB theory. We compactify six-dimensional (6D) space to the 6D torus, e.g. three 2-tori. The metric of the
th 2-torus for
is written by
on the real basis
, where
denotes the complex structure modulus. We denote the volume of the
th 2-torus by
. We use the complex coordinate
.
2.1.1. Yukawa couplings
Here, we review the analysis of Yukawa couplings in Ref. [12]. Our setup includes several stacks of D9-branes with magnetic fluxes. We assume that our setup preserves 4D supersymmetry. Among several D-branes, we consider two stacks of and D9-branes, which correspond to the gauge symmetry. We put magnetic fluxes, and on these D-branes along and directions of and . The magnetic fluxes must be quantized as in the complex basis. For simplicity, we do not include Wilson lines here [12].
The open strings between these magnetized branes have massless modes. There appear
zero-modes on the
th 2-torus, where
, and the total number of massless modes is given by their product,
. Their zero-mode profiles on the
th 2-torus are written by [
12]
for
, where
denotes the zero-mode index for
(mod
), and
is the normalization factor given by
The
-function is defined as
These zero-modes are also written by another basis,
These bases are related as
Note that the zero-mode profiles of bosonic and fermionic modes are the same in supersymmetric models. For , the zero-mode profiles are obtained by .
In addition to the above two stacks of D-branes, we consider another stack of
D9-branes. Then, there appear three types of massless modes,
,
, and
modes. Their Yukawa couplings among canonically normalized fields can be obtained by overlap integral of wavefunctions,
where
is the moduli-independent coefficient and
denotes the ten-dimensional dilaton. Here, we set
, because of gauge invariance. To be exact, we should replace the zero-mode indexes
by
. However, we denote them as
to simplify the equations. Hereafter, we use a similar simplification. In this computation, the following relation of zero-mode profiles,
is very useful. Then, the Yukawa coupling is written by [
12]
where
Similarly, the Yukawa couplings can be written in the basis
,
It would be convenient to use the 4D dilaton,
and we define
. Then, we can write the Yukawa coupling
2.1.2. Modular symmetry
Now, let us study the modular transformation of the complex structure moduli
. Recall that we use the basis, so that the fields are normalized canonically. Thus, we just investigate the modular transformation of the Yukawa couplings. The modular transformation (
1) is generated by the two generators,
and
,
The modular function satisfies
where
is called its modular weight. It is obvious that
is invariant under
. Under
, we have
The
-function
is the modular function with the modular weight 1/2.
The
-function part in the Yukawa coupling is transformed under
,
Furthermore, using the Poisson resummation formula, we find
Thus, the
-dependent part in the Yukawa coupling transforms under
as
This is nothing but the
-dependent part of the Yukawa coupling in the
basis. Therefore, the Yukawa coupling terms in 4D low-energy effective field theory are invariant under modular transformation, including basis change.
The above results can be extended to the magnetic flux,
by replacing
as
.
2.1.3. Higher-order couplings
We can study higher-order couplings in a similar way [
13]. For example, the four-point coupling can be obtained by computing the integral of zero-mode profiles,
We use the relation (
9), and then we obtain [
13]
where
and
with a certain integer
.
Similarly, we can compute generic
-point couplings [
13], whose
dependence as well as
dependence appears in the form
for proper values of
and
, because we use the relation (
9). Note that the
-function multiplied by
is invariant under modular transformation. Thus, 4D low-energy effective field theory is invariant at the perturbative level under modular transformation of the complex structure moduli, up to a change of field basis.
Similarly, we can study the orientifold and orbifold compactifications. For example, the zero-mode profiles on the
orbifold can be written by linear combinations of zero-mode profiles on the torus [
14],
Thus, the Yukawa couplings on the orbifold, as well as higher-order couplings, can be written by linear combinations of Yukawa couplings on the torus [
14]. Then, the Yukawa couplings on the orbifold are also modular invariant in the same way as those on the torus. Furthermore, the modular symmetry in magnetized D5- and D7-brane models can be studied in a similar way.
3. Supergravity and anomaly
In this section, we study modular symmetry within the framework of string-derived supergravity and investigate its anomaly.
3.1. Intersecting D-brane models
In the previous section, we studied modular symmetry in 4D low-energy effective field theory of magnetized D-brane models for canonically normalized fields. Here, we study type IIA intersecting D-brane models, which are T-dual to magnetized D-brane models. In intersecting D-brane models, the Kähler metric of matter fields was computed [10,15–18]. In this section, we study the modular symmetry from the viewpoint of supergravity derived from intersecting D-brane models. In particular, we study intersecting D6-brane models, where two sets of D6-branes, e.g. and , intersect each other at an angle on the th 2-torus.
First, we write the supergravity fields in type IIB theory as
where the imaginary parts of
and
correspond to certain axion fields. Their Kähler potential is written by
We take the T-dual along the
direction on each 2-torus from magnetized D9-branes to intersecting D6-branes. Then, we replace
We have seen that low-energy effective field theory of canonically normalized fields is modular symmetric for
in type IIB magnetized D-brane models. Thus, the low-energy effective field theory of type IIA intersecting D-brane models must have symmetry under the modular transformation
both in a canonically normalized field basis and in a supergravity basis.
We take the T-dual of the Yukawa coupling (
13) of the magnetized D9-brane models, and then we can write the Yukawa coupling of intersecting D-brane models:
where
Within the framework of supergravity, physical Yukawa couplings are written by
where
denotes the holomorphic Yukawa coupling in the superpotential, i.e.,
is the Kähler potential, and
,
,
are the Kähler metrics of the
,
,
sectors, respectively. Then, the relation (
31) requires that
The Kähler metric of matter fields has been computed [
10,
15–
18]. The Kähler metric of the
sector would be written as
For example, in Refs. [
16–
18], the ansatz
was discussed by comparing the holomorphic and physical gauge couplings and threshold corrections. They satisfy the above relation (
33) when
Similarly, the
-point couplings in magnetized D-brane models include the
-dependent factor (
23). Then, its T-dual intersecting D-brane models include
. This requires that the product of the Kähler metric satisfies
This relation is also satisfied by Eq. (
35) when
We can take the T-dual of type IIA intersecting D-brane models along the
direction,
and then obtain type IIB magnetized D-brane models, which are different from the one discussed in the previous section. The relation between these two type IIB models was studied in Ref. [
12], in particular the Yukawa couplings. Our results in the previous section can be understood as two different theories through double T-duality such as Ref. [
12], but in any rate we are interested in the modular symmetry in one 4D low-energy effective field theory, as mentioned in
Sect. 1.
3.2. Anomaly
In the previous section, the modular symmetry in the supergravity basis was studied. The chiral multiplet
in the
sector has the Kähler metric (
34). Thus, the chiral multiplet,
, transforms as
under the modular transformation (
28). That is, the matter field has the modular weight
under the modular transformation of the
th 2-torus.
Such a modular transformation may be anomalous. The supergravity Lagrangian includes the following couplings:
where
denotes the gaugino,
is the Kähler metric of
with the bosonic and fermionic components,
and
,
These couplings induce the anomaly of modular symmetry. Its anomaly coefficient of mixed anomaly with the
gauge group is written by [
4]
where
is the quadratic Casimir and
is the Dynkin index of the representation
. For simplicity, we consider the intersecting D-brane models on the torus. In this case, we can\break write
This anomaly can be canceled in two ways [4,5]. One is moduli-dependent threshold corrections and the other is the generalized Green–Schwarz mechanism. The latter would lead to mixing of moduli, e.g. in the Kähler potential. In order to see this, we first review briefly anomalous and the Green–Schwarz mechanism in the next subsection [10,11,19].
3.2.1. Anomalous
First, let us consider the
-branes wrapping the 3-cycle
, whose wrapping numbers are
along
. We introduce the basis of 3-cycles,
and
with
, such that
is along
for all of
, while
is along
only for
and
for the others. We also introduce their duals
such that
. These D6-branes correspond to the
gauge group, and its gauge kinetic function
is written by
where
where
.
Now, we study the
mixed anomaly. Its anomaly coefficient can be written by
where
This anomaly can be canceled by a shift of moduli,
in the gauge kinetic function
under the
transformation,
This means that the Kähler potential is not invariant, but the following Kähler potential is invariant:
The Green–Schwarz mechanism is the same in the toroidal, orientifold, and orbifold compactifications.
3.2.2. Anomaly cancelation of modular symmetry
As mentioned above, the modular anomaly can be canceled in two ways [
4,
5]. One is moduli-dependent threshold corrections and the other is the generalized Green–Schwarz mechanism. In general, the gauge kinetic function has one-loop threshold corrections due to massive modes as
where the first term on the right-hand side corresponds to Eq. (
45). The threshold corrections are computed explicitly [
17,
18,
20,
21], and their typical form is
where
is beta-function coefficient due to massive modes, and
is the Dedekind eta function, which has the modular weight
. This threshold correction can partially cancel the anomaly. The other part of the anomaly can be canceled by the generalized Green–Schwarz mechanism, where we impose the transformation
under the modular transformation (
28). That is, the generalized Green–Schwarz mechanism could cancel the anomaly proportional to
By comparison with the total anomaly as well as the
anomaly, a plausible ansatz would be
where
is constant. In this case, the coefficient
may be obtained,
to cancel the modular anomaly. Indeed, the threshold correction,
was discussed in Refs. [
17,
18].
The transformation (
54) implies that the Kähler potential is not invariant under the modular transformation. The Kähler potential must be modified as
That is, the moduli mix, and instead of
and
, the linear combinations
must appear in 4D low-energy effective field theory. Similar linear combinations were discussed in Ref. [
18], although the linear combinations in Ref. [
18] include a mixture of all the moduli.
2Here, we return to the type IIB model studied in
Sect. 2. Similar to the above, we may need to replace
in 4D low-energy effective field theory. For example, the 4D dilaton factor in the Yukawa coupling would be modified as
4. D-brane instanton effects
In Sect. 2, we studied the modular symmetry of perturbative terms in the Lagrangian. In this section, we study terms due to non-perturbative effects, in particular terms induced by D-brane instanton effects. First, we study an illustrative example, and then we will discuss generic aspects.
4.1. Example
In this subsection, we study a Majorana mass term induced by an E5-brane in type IIB magnetized orientifold models with O9-planes compactified on a
torus. In these models, the non-perturbative corrections to the superpotential are written as [
22,
23]
3 In Eq. (
63),
denotes a fermionic zero-mode of the E5-brane and
denotes the classical action of the E5-brane.
denotes interaction terms including fermionic zero-modes as
where
is an
-point coupling and
is the chiral superfield of the models. Then, we can obtain a Majorana mass term if there are two fermionic zero-modes and three-point couplings like
. The Majorana mass is generated as
In this subsection, we concentrate on the
th two-dimensional torus with two D-branes wrapping the whole compact space for simplicity. We put the magnetic fluxes
on one D-brane and
on the other D-brane. For simplicity, all Wilson lines are set to zero in this subsection too. Then, there are three chiral fermions between these two branes. These modes are given by the linear combinations of the wave functions on the covering torus
,
where
. The three zero-modes on the orbifold are given by Eq. (
24) [
14]. That is, two of them,
and
, correspond to
and
, respectively, while
is given by
In addition, an E5-brane with no magnetic flux induces two zero-modes between the E-brane and the D-branes. These zero-modes are given by
Then, Yukawa couplings are written by
Complete three-point couplings are products of three-point couplings of those on each two-dimensional torus and ten-dimensinal string coupling. The Majorana mass term is written as Eq. (
65). This Majorana mass term is invariant under the modular transformation of the complex structure moduli since its dependence on complex structure moduli is determined by that of perturbative three-point couplings and it is invariant under the modular transformation. The modular symmetry is not violated by the non-perturbative effects in this case.
4.2. Generic discussion
The example in the previous subsection shows the modular symmetry of non-perturbative terms induced by D-brane instanton effects for the complex structure moduli in type IIB magnetized\break D-brane models. Moreover, this example suggests a generic aspect. The D-brane instantons induce the non-perturbative terms such as
where
is a moduli-independent coefficient.
4 Here,
denotes the volume of the D-brane instanton in the compact space, and it depends only on
, but not
. Furthermore,
denotes the couplings among zero-modes and 4D fields
, and these are computed in the same way as the perturbative couplings shown in
Sect. 2. The
dependence appears only through these couplings
. Therefore, terms induced by D-brane instanton effects are also modular symmetric.
In this section, we have not taken into account the moduli mixing so far. However, the discussion in Sect. 3 would lead to modification such as Eq. (61).
5. Conclusion
We have studied the 4D low-energy effective field theory, which is derived from type IIB magnetized D-brane models and type IIA intersecting D-brane models. We have studied the modular symmetric behavior of perturbative terms. Also, such analysis has been extended to non-perturbative terms induced by D-brane instanton effects. We have also investigated the anomaly of the modular symmetry. Its cancelation would require moduli mixing correction terms in low-energy effective field theory. Thus, the modular symmetry is important in understanding the 4D low-energy effective field theory of superstring theory.
Acknowledgements
T. K. and S. U. are supported in part by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research No. 26247042 and No. 15J02107 from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology in Japan.
Funding
Open Access funding: SCOAP3.
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