Cost of seven-brane gauge symmetry in a quadrillion F-theory compactifications

Abstract

We study seven-branes in $O(10^{15})$ four-dimensional F-theory compactifications where seven-brane moduli must be tuned in order to achieve non-abelian gauge symmetry. The associated compact spaces $B$ are the set of all smooth weak Fano toric threefolds. By a study of fine star regular triangulations of three dimensional reflexive polytopes, the number of such spaces is estimated to be $5.8\times 10^{14}\lesssim N_\text{bases}\lesssim 1.8\times 10^{17}$. Typically hundreds or thousands of moduli must be tuned to achieve symmetry for $h^{11}(B)<10$, but the average number drops sharply into the range $O(25)$-$O(200)$ as $h^{11}(B)$ increases. For some low rank groups, such as $SU(2)$ and $SU(3)$, there exist examples where only a few moduli must be tuned in order to achieve seven-brane gauge symmetry.