Matter matters in moduli fixing and modular flavor symmetries

Modular flavor symmetries provide us with a very compelling approach to the flavor problem. It has been argued that moduli values close to some special values like $\tau =i$ or $\tau =\omega$ provide us with the best fits to data. We point out that the presence of hidden “matter” fields, needed to uplift symmetric AdS vacua, gives rise to a dynamical mechanism that leads to such values of $\tau$.