More about soft terms and FCNC in realistic string constructions

Abstract

In realistic four-dimensional string constructions the presence of anomalous U(1)'s is generic. In addition, the associated Fayet-Iliopoulos contribution to the D-term can break the extra gauge symmetries. As a consequence, physical particles can appear combined with other states. We show that even if a three-generation standard-like model has originally flavour-independent soft scalar masses, the particle mixing contribution may generate non-universality among them. Thus FCNC effects which were apparently absent reappear. We also discuss the size of these contributions in an explicit model, and how they can be suppressed.