Increased vitamin D levels, as reflected by 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25OHD) measurements, have been proposed to protect against COVID-19 based on in vitro, observational, and ecological studies. ...However, vitamin D levels are associated with many confounding variables, and thus associations described to date may not be causal. Vitamin D Mendelian randomization (MR) studies have provided results that are concordant with large-scale vitamin D randomized trials. Here, we used 2-sample MR to assess evidence supporting a causal effect of circulating 25OHD levels on COVID-19 susceptibility and severity.
Genetic variants strongly associated with 25OHD levels in a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 443,734 participants of European ancestry (including 401,460 from the UK Biobank) were used as instrumental variables. GWASs of COVID-19 susceptibility, hospitalization, and severe disease from the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative were used as outcome GWASs. These included up to 14,134 individuals with COVID-19, and up to 1,284,876 without COVID-19, from up to 11 countries. SARS-CoV-2 positivity was determined by laboratory testing or medical chart review. Population controls without COVID-19 were also included in the control groups for all outcomes, including hospitalization and severe disease. Analyses were restricted to individuals of European descent when possible. Using inverse-weighted MR, genetically increased 25OHD levels by 1 standard deviation on the logarithmic scale had no significant association with COVID-19 susceptibility (odds ratio OR = 0.95; 95% CI 0.84, 1.08; p = 0.44), hospitalization (OR = 1.09; 95% CI: 0.89, 1.33; p = 0.41), and severe disease (OR = 0.97; 95% CI: 0.77, 1.22; p = 0.77). We used an additional 6 meta-analytic methods, as well as conducting sensitivity analyses after removal of variants at risk of horizontal pleiotropy, and obtained similar results. These results may be limited by weak instrument bias in some analyses. Further, our results do not apply to individuals with vitamin D deficiency.
In this 2-sample MR study, we did not observe evidence to support an association between 25OHD levels and COVID-19 susceptibility, severity, or hospitalization. Hence, vitamin D supplementation as a means of protecting against worsened COVID-19 outcomes is not supported by genetic evidence. Other therapeutic or preventative avenues should be given higher priority for COVID-19 randomized controlled trials.
6D SCFTs and phases of 5D theories Del Zotto, Michele; Heckman, Jonathan J.; Morrison, David R.
The journal of high energy physics,
09/2017, Volume:
2017, Issue:
9
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
A
bstract
Starting from 6D superconformal field theories (SCFTs) realized via F-theory, we show how reduction on a circle leads to a uniform perspective on the phase structure of the resulting 5D ...theories, and their possible conformal fixed points. Using the correspon-dence between F-theory reduced on a circle and M-theory on the corresponding elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau threefold, we show that each 6D SCFT with minimal supersymmetry directly reduces to a collection of between one and four 5D SCFTs. Additionally, we find that in most cases, reduction of the tensor branch of a 6D SCFT yields a 5D generalization of a quiver gauge theory. These two reductions of the theory often correspond to different phases in the 5D theory which are in general connected by a sequence of flop transitions in the extended Kähler cone of the Calabi-Yau threefold. We also elaborate on the structure of the resulting conformal fixed points, and emergent flavor symmetries, as realized by M-theory on a canonical singularity.
A
bstract
We study (1, 0) and (2, 0) 6D superconformal field theories (SCFTs) that can be constructed in F-theory. Quite surprisingly, all of them involve an orbifold singularity ℂ
2
/Γ with Γ a ...discrete subgroup of U(2). When Γ is a subgroup of
SU
(2), all discrete subgroups are allowed, and this leads to the familiar ADE classification of (2, 0) SCFTs. For more general U(2) subgroups, the allowed possibilities for Γ are not arbitrary and are given by certain generalizations of the A- and D-series. These theories should be viewed as the minimal 6D SCFTs. We obtain all other SCFTs by bringing in a number of E-string theories and/or decorating curves in the base by non-minimal gauge algebras. In this way we obtain a vast number of new 6D SCFTs, and we conjecture that our construction provides a full list.
A
bstract
The Mordell-Weil group of an elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau threefold
X
contains information about the abelian sector of the six-dimensional theory obtained by compactifying F-theory on
X
.... After examining features of the abelian anomaly coefficient matrix and U(1) charge quantization conditions of general F-theory vacua, we study CalabiYau threefolds with Mordell-Weil rank-one as a first step towards understanding the features of the Mordell-Weil group of threefolds in more detail. In particular, we generate an interesting class of F-theory models with U(1) gauge symmetry that have matter with both charges 1 and 2. The anomaly equations — which relate the Néron-Tate height of a section to intersection numbers between the section and fibral rational curves of the manifold — serve as an important tool in our analysis.
A
bstract
We prove that, for every 6D supergravity theory that has an F-theory description, the property of charge completeness for the connected component of the gauge group (meaning that all ...charges in the corresponding charge lattice are realized by massive or massless states in the theory) is equivalent to a standard assumption made in F-theory for how geometry encodes the global gauge theory by means of the Mordell-Weil group of the elliptic fibration. This result also holds in 4D F-theory constructions for the parts of the gauge group that come from sections and from 7-branes. We find that in many 6D F-theory models the full charge lattice of the theory is generated by massless charged states; this occurs for each gauge factor where the associated anomaly coefficient satisfies a simple positivity condition. We describe many of the cases where this massless charge sufficiency condition holds, as well as exceptions where the positivity condition fails, and analyze the related global structure of the gauge group and associated Mordell-Weil torsion in explicit F-theory models.
F-theory on genus-one fibrations Braun, Volker; Morrison, David R.
The journal of high energy physics,
08/2014, Volume:
2014, Issue:
8
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
A
bstract
We argue that M-theory compactified on an arbitrary genus-one fibration, that is, an elliptic fibration which need not have a section, always has an F-theory limit when the area of the ...genus-one fiber approaches zero. Such genus-one fibrations can be easily constructed as toric hypersurfaces, and various SU(5) × U(1)
n
and
E
6
models are presented as examples. To each genus-one fibration one can associate a
τ
-function on the base as well as an SL(2
,
ℤ
) representation which together define the IIB axio-dilaton and 7-brane content of the theory. The set of genus-one fibrations with the same
τ
-function and SL(2
,
ℤ
) representation, known as the Tate-Shafarevich group, supplies an important degree of freedom in the corresponding F-theory model which has not been studied carefully until now.
Six-dimensional anomaly cancellation as well as Witten’s zero-mode count on wrapped branes both imply corrections to the usual F-theory dictionary for some of these models. In particular, neutral hypermultiplets which are localized at codimension-two fibers can arise. (All previous known examples of localized hypermultiplets were charged under the gauge group of the theory.) Finally, in the absence of a section some novel monodromies of Kodaira fibers are allowed which lead to new breaking patterns of non-Abelian gauge groups.
The frozen phase of F-theory Bhardwaj, Lakshya; Morrison, David R.; Tachikawa, Yuji ...
The journal of high energy physics,
08/2018, Volume:
2018, Issue:
8
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
A
bstract
We study the interpretation of O7
+
-planes in F-theory, mainly in the context of the six-dimensional models. In particular, we study how to assign gauge algebras and matter content to ...seven-branes and their intersections, and the implication of anomaly cancellation in our construction, generalizing earlier analyses without any O7
+
-planes. By including O7
+
-planes we can realize 6d superconformal field theories hitherto unobtainable in F-theory, such as those with hypermultiplets in the symmetric representation of su. We also examine a couple of compact models. These reproduce some famous perturbative models, and in some cases enhance their gauge symmetries non-perturbatively.
On the frozen F-theory landscape Morrison, David R.; Sung, Benjamin
The journal of high energy physics,
05/2024, Volume:
2024, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
A
bstract
We study 6d
= (1, 0) supergravity theories arising in the frozen phase of F-theory. For each of the known global models, we construct an F-theory compactification in the unfrozen phase with ...an identical non-abelian gauge algebra and massless matter content. Two such low energy effective theories are then distinguished through gauge enhancements in moduli space. We study potentially new global models obtained via compact embeddings of a plethora of 6d
= (1, 0) superconformal field theories and little string theories constructed using frozen 7-branes. In some cases, these provably do not exist, and in other cases, we explicitly construct a compact embedding, yielding 6d supergravity theories with new massless spectra. Finally, by using gravitational anomaly cancellation, we conjecture the existence of localized neutral hypermultiplets along frozen 7-brane loci.
Higher-form symmetries in 5d Morrison, David R.; Schäfer-Nameki, Sakura; Willett, Brian
The journal of high energy physics,
09/2020, Volume:
2020, Issue:
9
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
A
bstract
We study higher-form symmetries in 5d quantum field theories, whose charged operators include extended operators such as Wilson line and ’t Hooft operators. We outline criteria for the ...existence of higher-form symmetries both from a field theory point of view as well as from the geometric realization in M-theory on non-compact Calabi-Yau threefolds. A geometric criterion for determining the higher-form symmetry from the intersection data of the Calabi-Yau is provided, and we test it in a multitude of examples, including toric geometries. We further check that the higher-form symmetry is consistent with dualities and is invariant under flop transitions, which relate theories with the same UV-fixed point. We explore extensions to higher-form symmetries in other compactifications of M-theory, such as
G
2
-holonomy manifolds, which give rise to 4d
N
= 1 theories.
Atomic classification of 6D SCFTs Heckman, Jonathan J.; Morrison, David R.; Rudelius, Tom ...
Fortschritte der Physik,
July 2015, Volume:
63, Issue:
7-8
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We use F‐theory to classify possibly all six‐dimensional superconformal field theories (SCFTs). This involves a two step process: We first classify all possible tensor branches allowed in F‐theory ...(which correspond to allowed collections of contractible spheres) and then classify all possible configurations of seven‐branes wrapped over them. We describe the first step in terms of “atoms” joined into “radicals” and “molecules,” using an analogy from chemistry. The second step has an interpretation via quiver‐type gauge theories constrained by anomaly cancellation. A very surprising outcome of our analysis is that all of these tensor branches have the structure of a linear chain of intersecting spheres with a small amount of possible decoration at the two ends. The resulting structure of these SCFTs takes the form of a generalized quiver consisting of ADE‐type nodes joined by conformal matter. A collection of highly non‐trivial examples involving E8 small instantons probing an ADE singularity is shown to have an F‐theory realization. This yields a classification of homomorphisms from ADE subgroups of SU(2) into E8 in purely geometric terms, matching results obtained in the mathematics literature from an intricate group theory analysis.
We use F‐theory to classify possibly all six‐dimensional superconformal field theories (SCFTs). This involves a two step process: We first classify all possible tensor branches allowed in F‐theory (which correspond to allowed collections of contractible spheres) and then classify all possible configurations of seven‐branes wrapped over them. We describe the first step in terms of “atoms” joined into “radicals” and “molecules,” using an analogy from chemistry. The second step has an interpretation via quiver‐type gauge theories constrained by anomaly cancellation. A very surprising outcome of our analysis is that all of these tensor branches have the structure of a linear chain of intersecting spheres with a small amount of possible decoration at the two ends. The resulting structure of these SCFTs takes the form of a generalized quiver consisting of ADE‐type nodes joined by conformal matter. A collection of highly non‐trivial examples involving E8 small instantons probing an ADE singularity is shown to have an F‐theory realization. This yields a classification of homomorphisms from ADE subgroups of SU(2) into E8 in purely geometric terms, matching results obtained in the mathematics literature from an intricate group theory analysis.
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