The String Theory Photoverse

Abstract

String theory compactifications come with numerous $U(1)$ factors, implying the presence of many hidden photons in the low-energy EFT. One may call this the ``string photoverse''. We argue that, generically, these hidden photons are massless and do not couple to any light dark current such that, naively, kinetic mixing with the Standard Model is unobservable. The leading interactions of these ``superhidden'' photons are then dimension-6 dipole operators which couple them to quarks or leptons and the Higgs field. This induces magnetic and electric dipole moments with respect to both the superhidden photons as well as, through kinetic mixing, to the Standard Model photon. We derive these couplings by dimensionally reducing the fermionic action of 7-branes realizing the Standard Model: In the first step to 6d theories on intersection curves and then, in the presence of fluxes, to our 4d chiral EFT. We analyze how experiments and observations can employ this effect to place lower bounds on the string scale, which is relevant for compactifications with very large volumes. Finally, we briefly discuss how supersymmetry implies the presence of relatively light photinos and hence an accompanying ``photinoverse'', which may be observed via renormalizable mixing effects.