Semi-Flatland

TL;DR

This paper explores perturbative Type II string compactifications with a fibration structure, including non-geometric spaces via T-duality, and discusses their supersymmetry, dualities, spectra, and novel reductions.

Contribution

It introduces a semi-flatland approach to string compactifications, analyzing non-geometric spaces, dualities, and twisted reductions with new insights into brane effects and orientifold equivalences.

Findings

Identification of non-geometric vacua with N=1 supersymmetry.

Matching spectra with M-theory on G2 and Joyce manifolds.

Explanation of brane-creation effects and orientifold equivalences.

Abstract

We study perturbative compactifications of Type II string theory that rely on a fibration structure of the extra dimensions a la SYZ. Non-geometric spaces are obtained by using T-dualities as monodromies. These vacua generically preserve N=1 supersymmetry in four dimensions, and are U-dual to M-theory on G2 manifolds. Several examples are discussed, some of which admit an asymmetric orbifold description. The massless spectrum is matched to that of the dual M-theory compactification on a Joyce manifold when a comparison is possible. We explore the possibility of twisted reductions where left-moving spacetime fermion number Wilson lines are turned on in the fiber. We also give an explanation from this semiflat viewpoint for the Hanany-Witten brane-creation effect and for the equivalence of the Type IIA orientifold on T5/Z2 and Type IIB on S1 x K3.