Yukawa textures in Horava–Witten M-theory Original Research Article

Recent advances in 11-dimensional Horava–Witten M-theory based on non-standard embeddings with torus fibered Calabi–Yau manifolds have allowed the construction of three generation models with Wilson line breaking to the Standard Model gauge symmetry. Central to these constructions is the existence of a set of 5-branes in the bulk. We examine within this framework the general structure of the matter Yukawa couplings and show that M-theory offers an alternate possible way of achieving the CKM and quark mass hierarchies without introducing undue fine tuning or (as in conventional analysis) small parameters raised to high powers. A phenomenological example is presented in accord with all CKM and quark mass data requiring mainly that the 5-branes cluster near the second orbifold plane, and that the instanton charges of the physical orbifold plane vanish. An explicit example of a three generation model with vanishing physical plane instanton charges based on a torus fibered Calabi–Yau three fold with a del Pezzo base dP7 and Wilson line breaking is constructed.