Stringy Constraints on Modular Flavor Models

Abstract

Abstract We investigate stringy constraints on moduli spaces in modular flavor models by analyzing moduli-dependent threshold corrections in heterotic string vacua. While moduli play a crucial role in determining the flavor structure of fermions predicted by modular flavor models, the parameter space in which their vacuum expectation values are allowed has not been fully explored. In this work, within the framework of perturbative heterotic string theory on toroidal orbifolds, we derive constraints on the moduli space and study their systematic behavior. We characterize the stringy constraints in terms of the dilaton, the beta-function coefficients, and the ratio between a complex-structure modulus and a Kähler modulus. It is found that the large value of the modulus controlling the flavor structure, i.e., τ ≃ i∞, is inconsistent within perturbative string theory, and the self-dual point τ = i is also disfavored in the large volume regime of toroidal backgrounds. In addition, we discuss the phenomenological implications of these stringy constraints.