Symmetries, and Symmetry Breaking in String Theory

A special issue of Symmetry (ISSN 2073-8994). This special issue belongs to the section "Physics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2025) | Viewed by 1082

Special Issue Editor


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Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics, Ludwig Maximilians Universität München, Theresienstrasse 37, 80333 München, Germany
Interests: string theory

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Symmetries play a key role in modern physics. Conceptually, they provide organizing principles for building models. Pragmatically, they provide selection rules which simplify many computations. Phenomenologically, symmetries provide rationales for hierarchy problems and novel discoveries. To wit, the framework of (spontaneous) symmetry breaking drives many features of effective field theories and collective phenomena, and the structure of the Higgs mechanism in the standard model has led to correct predictions decades in advance.

A natural step in this direction is the inception of supersymmetry and its gravitational counterpart, supergravity. In addition to completing the structure of weakly coupled relativistic quantum fields with the gravitino, supersymmetry quickly found a spotlight in model building for particle physics beyond the standard model due to its attractive implications for electroweak hierarchy and dark matter problems.

String theory is a natural home for all these ideas, able to incorporate gravity, gauge interactions, and supersymmetry in a coherent quantum–mechanical framework. It is thus paramount to narrow down which kind of gauge groups, representations, and supercharges can survive its formidable consistency constraints.

In this Special Issue, we would like to explore how symmetries and their breaking or gauging arise in string theory and whether general lessons can be drawn from them.

Dr. Ivano Basile
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • symmetry
  • symmetry breaking
  • supersymmetry
  • gauge group
  • quantum gravity
  • string theory
  • swampland
  • anomaly
  • string universality
  • string landscape

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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23 pages, 444 KiB  
Article
Center Symmetry Breaking in Calabi–Yau Compactifications
by Ivano Basile and Pouya Golmohammadi
Symmetry 2025, 17(4), 490; https://doi.org/10.3390/sym17040490 - 25 Mar 2025
Viewed by 370
Abstract
It is widely believed that global symmetries must be broken in Quantum Gravity. This includes higher-form symmetries, which are commonplace in supergravity coupled to vector multiplets. Recently, a quantitative criterion for the breaking of (higher-form) symmetries in effective field theories of gravity has [...] Read more.
It is widely believed that global symmetries must be broken in Quantum Gravity. This includes higher-form symmetries, which are commonplace in supergravity coupled to vector multiplets. Recently, a quantitative criterion for the breaking of (higher-form) symmetries in effective field theories of gravity has been proposed. We studied this criterion in the context of center one-form symmetries broken by BPS states in Calabi–Yau compactifications of type IIA string theory and M-theory. In a simple toy model, we evaluated the parameters quantifying the extent of symmetry breaking for large and small values of the moduli, comparing the scales of significant breaking with other relevant physical scales. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Symmetries, and Symmetry Breaking in String Theory)
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Review

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53 pages, 560 KiB  
Review
Notes on Derived Deformation Theory for Field Theories and Their Symmetries
by Ingmar Saberi
Symmetry 2025, 17(8), 1172; https://doi.org/10.3390/sym17081172 - 22 Jul 2025
Viewed by 311
Abstract
These notes are an informal overview of techniques related to deformation theory in the context of physics. Beginning from motivation for the concept of a sheaf, they build up through derived functors, resolutions, and the functor of points to the notion of a [...] Read more.
These notes are an informal overview of techniques related to deformation theory in the context of physics. Beginning from motivation for the concept of a sheaf, they build up through derived functors, resolutions, and the functor of points to the notion of a moduli problem, emphasizing physical motivation and the principles of locality and general covariance at each step. They are primarily aimed at those who have some prior exposure to quantum field theory and are interested in acquiring some intuition or orientation regarding modern mathematical methods. A couple of small things are new, including a discussion of the twist of N=1 conformal supergravity in generic backgrounds at the level of the component fields and a computation relating the two-dimensional local cocycle for the Weyl anomaly to the one for the Virasoro anomaly. I hope they will serve as a useful appetizer for the more careful and complete treatments of this material that are already available. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Symmetries, and Symmetry Breaking in String Theory)
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