Large U(1) charges from flux breaking in 4D F-theory models

bstract We study the massless charged spectrum of U(1) gauge fields in F-theory that arise from flux breaking of a nonabelian group. The U(1) charges that arise in this way can be very large. In particular, using vertical flux breaking, we construct an explicit 4D F-theory model with a U(1) decoupled from other gauge sectors, in which the massless/light fields have charges as large as 657. This result greatly exceeds prior results in the literature. We argue heuristically that this result may provide an upper bound on charges for light fields under decoupled U(1) factors in the F-theory landscape. We also show that the charges can be even larger when the U(1) is coupled to other gauge groups.