F-theory flux, destabilization of orientifolds and soft terms on D7-branes Original Research Article

We use F-theory to derive a general expression for the flux potential of type II compactifications with D7/D3 branes, including open string moduli and 2-form fluxes on the branes. Our main example is F-theory on image and its orientifold limit image. The full scalar potential cannot be derived from the bulk superpotential image and generically destabilizes the orientifold. Generically all open and closed string moduli are fixed, except for a volume factor. An alternative formulation of the problem in terms of the effective supergravity is given and we construct an explicit map between the F-theory fluxes and gaugings. We use the superpotential to compute the effective action for flux compactifications on orbifolds, including the μ-term and soft-breaking terms on the D7-brane world-volume.