Discrete symmetries in the heterotic-string landscape

Abstract

We describe a new type of discrete symmetry that relates heterotic-string models. It is based on the spectral flow operator which normally acts within a general N=(2,2) model and we use this operator to construct a map between N=(2,0) models. The landscape of N=(2,0) models is of particular interest among all heterotic-string models for two important reasons: Firstly, N=1 spacetime SUSY requires (2,0) superconformal invariance and secondly, models with the well motivated by the Standard Model SO(10) unification structure are of this type. This idea was inspired by a new discrete symmetry in the space of fermionic ${\mathbb{Z}}_2\times {\mathbb{Z}}_2$ heterotic-string models that exchanges the spinors and vectors of the SO(10) GUT group, dubbed spinor-vector duality. We will describe how to generalize this to arbitrary internal rational Conformal Field Theories.

Comments: Contribution to the Proceedings of the "Discrete 2014" Conference at KCL, London, UK, December 2014