  Flavor symmetry plays a crucial role in the standard model of particle
physics but its origin is still unknown. We develop a new method (based on
outer automorphisms of the Narain space group) to determine flavor symmetries
within compactified string theory. A picture emerges where traditional
(discrete) flavor symmetries, CP-like symmetries and modular symmetries (like
T-duality) of string theory combine to unified flavor symmetries. The groups
depend on the geometry of compact space and the geographical location of fields
in the extra dimensions. We observe a phenomenon of "local flavor groups" with
potentially different flavor symmetries for the various sectors of quarks and
leptons. This should allow interesting connections to existing bottom-up
attempts in flavor model building.
