Yukawas, G-flux, and Spectral Covers from Resolved Calabi-Yau's

We use the resolution procedure of Esole and Yau arXiv:1107.0733 to study Yukawa couplings, G-flux, and the emergence of spectral covers from elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau's with a surface of A_4 singularities. We provide a global description of the Esole-Yau resolution and use it to explicitly compute Chern classes of the resolved 4-fold, proving the conjecture of arXiv:0908.1784 for the Euler character in the process. We comment on the physical implications of the surprising singular fibers in codimension 2 and 3 in arXiv:1107.0733 and emphasize a group theoretic interpretation based on the A_4 weight lattice. We then construct explicit G-fluxes by brute force in one of the 6 birationally equivalent Esole-Yau resolutions, quantize them explicitly using our result for the second Chern class, and compute the spectrum and flux-induced 3-brane charges, finding agreement with results and conjectures of local models in all cases. Finally, we provide a precise description of the spectral divisor formalism in this setting and sharpen the procedure described in arXiv:1107.1718 in order to explicitly demonstrate how the Higgs bundle spectral cover of the local model emerges from the resolved Calabi-Yau geometry. Along the way, we demonstrate explicitly how the quantization rules for fluxes in the local and global models are related.Comment: 68 pages (41 pages + 4 appendices

D-Brane Charges in Gepner Models

We construct Gepner models in terms of coset conformal field theories and compute their twisted equivariant K-theories. These classify the D-brane charges on the associated geometric backgrounds and therefore agree with the topological K-theories. We show this agreement for various cases, in particular the Fermat quintic.Comment: 25 pages, 2 figures. LaTeX. v2: typos and references corrected. v3: reference adde

Six-dimensional Origin of N=4\mathcal{N}=4 SYM with Duality Defects

We study the topologically twisted compactification of the 6d $(2,0)$ M5-brane theory on an elliptically fibered K\"ahler three-fold preserving two supercharges. We show that upon reducing on the elliptic fiber, the 4d theory is $\mathcal{N}=4$ Super-Yang Mills, with varying complexified coupling $\tau$, in the presence of defects. For abelian gauge group this agrees with the so-called duality twisted theory, and we determine a non-abelian generalization to $U(N)$. When the elliptic fibration is singular, the 4d theory contains 3d walls (along the branch-cuts of $\tau$) and 2d surface defects, around which the 4d theory undergoes $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ duality transformations. Such duality defects carry chiral fields, which from the 6d point of view arise as modes of the two-form $B$ in the tensor multiplet. Each duality defect has a flavor symmetry associated to it, which is encoded in the structure of the singular elliptic fiber above the defect. Generically 2d surface defects will intersect in points in 4d, where there is an enhanced flavor symmetry. The 6d point of view provides a complete characterization of this 4d-3d-2d-0d `Matroshka'-defect configuration.Comment: 62 pages, 4 figure

The Tate Form on Steroids: Resolution and Higher Codimension Fibers

F-theory on singular elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau four-folds provides a setting to geometrically study four-dimensional N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories, including matter and Yukawa couplings. The gauge degrees of freedom arise from the codimension 1 singular loci, the matter and Yukawa couplings are generated at enhanced singularities in higher codimension. We construct the resolution of the singular Tate form for an elliptic Calabi-Yau four-fold with an ADE type singularity in codimension 1 and study the structure of the fibers in codimension 2 and 3. We determine the fibers in higher codimension which in general are of Kodaira type along minimal singular loci, and are thus consistent with the low energy gauge-theoretic intuition. Furthermore, we provide a complementary description of the fibers in higher codimension, which will also be applicable to non-minimal singularities. The irreducible components in the fiber in codimension 2 correspond to weights of representations of the ADE gauge group. These can split further in codimension 3 in a way that is consistent with the generation of Yukawa couplings. Applying this reasoning, we then venture out to study non-minimal singularities, which occur for A type along codimension 3, and for D and E also in codimension 2. The fibers in this case are non-Kodaira, however some insight into these singularities can be gained by considering the splitting of fiber components along higher codimension, which are shown to be consistent with matter and Yukawa couplings for the corresponding gauge groups.Comment: 75 pages, v2: clarifications and references added, JHEP versio

F-theory and 2d (0,2) Theories

F-theory compactified on singular, elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau five-folds gives rise to two-dimensional gauge theories preserving N=(0,2) supersymmetry. In this paper we initiate the study of such compactifications and determine the dictionary between the geometric data of the elliptic fibration and the 2d gauge theory such as the matter content in terms of (0,2) superfields and their supersymmetric couplings. We study this setup both from a gauge-theoretic point of view, in terms of the partially twisted 7-brane theory, and provide a global geometric description based on the structure of the elliptic fibration and its singularities. Global consistency conditions are determined and checked against the dual M-theory compactification to one dimension. This includes a discussion of gauge anomalies, the structure of the Green-Schwarz terms and the Chern-Simons couplings in the dual M-theory supersymmetric quantum mechanics. Furthermore, by interpreting the resulting 2d (0,2) theories as heterotic worldsheet theories, we propose a correspondence between the geometric data of elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau five-folds and the target space of a heterotic gauged linear sigma-model (GLSM). In particular the correspondence between the Landau-Ginsburg and sigma-model phase of a 2d (0,2) GLSM is realized via different T-branes or gluing data in F-theory.Comment: 124 pages, 5 figures, v2: ref added, v3: typos corrected, discussion of interactions extended, v4: updated section 12, v5: typos corrected and refs adde

Spin(7)-Manifolds as Generalized Connected Sums and 3d N=1 Theories

M-theory on compact eight-manifolds with $\mathrm{Spin}(7)$-holonomy is a framework for geometric engineering of 3d $\mathcal{N}=1$ gauge theories coupled to gravity. We propose a new construction of such $\mathrm{Spin}(7)$-manifolds, based on a generalized connected sum, where the building blocks are a Calabi-Yau four-fold and a $G_2$-holonomy manifold times a circle, respectively, which both asymptote to a Calabi-Yau three-fold times a cylinder. The generalized connected sum construction is first exemplified for Joyce orbifolds, and is then used to construct examples of new compact manifolds with $\mathrm{Spin}(7)$-holonomy. In instances when there is a K3-fibration of the $\mathrm{Spin}(7)$-manifold, we test the spectra using duality to heterotic on a $T^3$-fibered $G_2$-holonomy manifold, which are shown to be precisely the recently discovered twisted-connected sum constructions.Comment: 49 pages, 4 figures; v2: added reference