2020/12/02 by Nikhil Raghuram, Washington Taylor, Andrew P. Turner · 1 citation
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Anomaly (physics) #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Content (measure theory) #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Gauge (firearms) #Gauge anomaly #Gauge group #Gauge theory #Mathematical analysis #Mathematical physics #Mathematics #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Supergravity #Supersymmetric gauge theory #Supersymmetry #Theoretical physics #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/jhep07(2021)048
56 pages, LaTeX
arxiv created 2020/12/02 · openalex publication_date 2021/07/01 · arxiv updated 2021/07/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
A bstract We observe that in many F-theory models, tuning a specific gauge group G and matter content M under certain circumstances leads to an automatic enhancement to a larger gauge group G ′ ⊃ G and matter content M ′ ⊃ M . We propose that this is true for any theory G, M whenever there exists a containing theory G ′ , M ′ that cannot be Higgsed down to G, M . We give a number of examples including non-Higgsable gauge factors, nonabelian gauge factors, abelian gauge factors, and exotic matter. In each of these cases, tuning an F-theory model with the desired features produces either an enhancement or an inconsistency, often when the associated anomaly coefficient becomes too large. This principle applies to a variety of models in the apparent 6D supergravity swampland, including some of the simplest cases with U(1) and SU( N ) gauge groups and generic matter, as well as infinite families of U(1) models with higher charges presented in the prior literature, potentially ruling out all these apparent swampland theories.