Particle Physics Implications of F-theory

Abstract

We review recent progress in realizing Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) in a strongly coupled formulation of type IIB string theory known as F-theory. Our main emphasis is on the expected low-energy phenomenology of a minimal class of F-theory GUTs. We introduce the primary ingredients in such constructions, and then present qualitative features of GUT models in this framework such as GUT breaking, doublet-triplet splitting, and proton decay. Next, we review proposals for realizing flavor hierarchies in the quark and lepton sectors. We discuss possible supersymmetry breaking scenarios, and their consequences for experiment, as well as geometrically minimal realizations of F-theory GUTs which incorporate most of these features.