Infinite number of MSSMs from heterotic line bundles?

Abstract

We consider heterotic ${\mathrm{E}}_{8}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{\mathrm{E}}_{8}$ supergravity compactified on smooth Calabi-Yau manifolds with line bundle gauge backgrounds. Infinite sets of models that satisfy the Bianchi identities and flux quantization conditions can be constructed by letting their background flux quanta grow without bound. Even though we do not have a general proof, we find that all examples are at the boundary of the theory's validity: the Donaldson-Uhlenbeck-Yau equations, which can be thought of as vanishing D-term conditions, cannot be satisfied inside the K\"ahler cone unless a growing number of scalar vacuum expectation values is switched on. As they are charged under various line bundles simultaneously, the gauge background gets deformed by these VEVs to a non-Abelian bundle. In general, our physical expectation is that such infinite sets of models should be impossible, since they never seem to occur in exact conformal field theory constructions.