We propose a bottom-up approach to the building of particle physics models from string theory. Our building blocks are Type II D-branes which we combine appropriately to reproduce desirable features of a particle theory model: 1) Chirality ; 2) Standard Model group ; 3) N = 1 or N = 0 supersymmetry ; 4) Three quark-lepton generations. We start such a program by studying configurations of D = 10, Type IIB D3-branes located at singularities. We study in detail the case of Z Z N N = 1, 0 orbifold singularities leading to the SM group or some left-right symmetric extension. In general, tadpole cancellation conditions require the presence of additional branes, e.g. D7-branes. For the N = 1 supersymmetric case the unique twist leading to three quark-lepton generations is Z Z 3 , predicting sin 2 θ W = 3/14 = 0.21. The models obtained are the simplest semirealistic string models ever built. In the non-supersymmetric case there is a three-generation model for each Z Z N , N > 4, but the Weinberg angle is in general too small. One can obtain a large class of D = 4 compact models by considering the above structure embedded into a Calabi Yau compactification. We explicitly construct examples of such compact models using Z Z 3 toroidal orbifolds and orientifolds, and discuss their properties. In these examples, global cancellation of RR charge may be achieved by adding anti-branes stuck at the fixed points, leading to models with hidden sector gravity-induced supersymmetry breaking. More general frameworks, like F-theory compactifications, allow completely N = 1 supersymmetric embeddings of our local structures, as we show in an explicit example.

Intersecting Dp-branes often give rise to chiral fermions living on their intersections.We study the construction of four-dimensional chiral gauge theories by considering configurations of type II D(3 + n)-branes wrapped on non-trivial n-cycles on T 2n × (R 2(3−n) /Z N ), for n = 1, 2, 3. The gauge theories on the four non-compact dimensions of the brane world-volume are generically chiral and non-supersymmetric. We analyze consistency conditions (RR tadpole cancellation) for these models, and their relation to four-dimensional anomaly cancellation. Cancellation of U (1) gauge anomalies involves a Green-Schwarz mechanism mediated by RR partners of untwisted and/or twisted moduli. This class of models is of potential phenomenological interest, and we construct explicit examples of SU (3) × SU (2) × U (1) three-generation models. The models are non-supersymmetric, but the string scale may be lowered close to the weak scale so that the standard hierarchy problem is avoided. We also comment on the presence of scalar tachyons and possible ways to avoid the associated instabilities. We discuss the existence of (meta)stable configurations of D-branes on 3-cycles in (T 2 ) 3 , free of tachyons for certain ranges of the six-torus moduli.

We study different aspects of the construction of D=4, N=1 type IIB orientifolds based on toroidal Z N and Z M ×Z N , D=4 orbifolds. We find that tadpole cancellation conditions are in general more constraining than in six dimensions and that the standard Gimon-Polchinski orientifold projection leads to the impossibility of tadpole cancellations in a number of Z N orientifolds with even N including Z 4 , Z 8 , Z ′ 8 and Z ′ 12 . We construct D=4, Z N and Z N ×Z M orientifolds with different configurations of 9-branes, 5-branes and 7-branes, most of them chiral. Models including the analogue of discrete torsion are constructed and shown to have features previously conjectured on the basis of F-theory compactified on four-folds. Different properties of the D=4, N=1 models obtained are discussed including their possible heterotic duals and effective low-energy action. These models have in general more than one anomalous U(1) and the anomalies are cancelled by a D=4 generalized Green-Schwarz mechanism involving dilaton and moduli fields.

We generalize the recent proposal that invariance under T-duality leads to additional nongeometric fluxes required so that superpotentials in type IIA and type IIB orientifolds match.We show that invariance under type IIB S-duality requires the introduction of a new set of fluxes leading to further superpotential terms. We find new classes of N =1 supersymmetric Minkowski vacua based on type IIB toroidal orientifolds in which not only dilaton and complex moduli but also Kähler moduli are fixed. The chains of dualities relating type II orientifolds to heterotic and M-theory compactifications suggests the existence of yet further flux degrees of freedom. Restricting to a particular type IIA/IIB or heterotic compactification only some of these degrees of freedom have a simple perturbative and/or geometric interpretation.