Discrete flavor symmetries in D-brane models

We study the presence of discrete flavor symmetries in D-brane models of particle physics. By analyzing the compact extra dimensions of these models one can determine when such symmetries exist both in the context of intersecting and magnetized D-brane constructions. Our approach allows to distinguish between approximate and exact discrete symmetries, and it can be applied to compactification manifolds with continuous isometries or to manifolds that only contain discrete isometries, like Calabi-Yau three-folds. We analyze in detail the class of rigid D-branes models based on a Z_2 x Z'_2 toroidal orientifold, for which the flavor symmetry group is either the dihedral group D_4 or tensor products of it. We construct explicit Pati-Salam examples in which families transform in non-Abelian representations of the flavor symmetry group, constraining Yukawa couplings beyond the effect of massive U(1) D-brane symmetries.