On Stringy Origin of Minimal Flavor Violation

Abstract

We study the minimal flavor violation in the context of string effective field theory. Stringy selection rules indicate that $n$-point couplings among fermionic zero-modes and lightest scalar modes in the string effective action are given by a product of Yukawa couplings which are regarded as spurion fields of stringy and geometrical symmetries. Hence, Yukawa couplings determine the dynamics of flavor and CP violations. This observation strongly supports the hypothesis of minimal flavor violation in the Standard Model effective field theory.