Standard-model bundles (Q700569)

This is the second part of the construction of standard-model bundles, i.e. the construction of a quadruple \((X, \tau_X, H, V)\), where \(X\) is a smooth Calabi-Yau 3-fold with a freely acting involution \(\tau_X\), \(H\) is an ample line bundle on \(X\) and \(V\) is a \(\tau_X\)-invariant \(H\)-stable rank five vector bundle on \(X\), such that \(c_1(V)=0\), \(c_2(X)- c_2(V)\) is effective and \(c_3(V) =12\). The authors take \(X\) to be a fiber product of two special rational elliptic surfaces over \(\mathbb{P}^1\). The involution on \(X\) comes from the involutions on special rational elliptic surfaces. The rank five bundle \(V\) is built as an extension of a rank two bundle by a rank three bundle. The structure group of \(V\) is reduced to \(SU(5) \times \mathbb{Z}/2\), whose centralizer in \(E_8\) is isomorphic to \(SU(3) \times SU(2) \times U(1)\). The latter is the symmetry group of the standard-model in physics. This construction gives infinitely many positive dimensional families, which could be used for phenomenologically relevant compactifications of heterotic M-theory.