The frozen phase of F-theory

TL;DR

This paper explores the role of O7+ planes in F-theory, enabling the realization of new 6d superconformal field theories and non-perturbative gauge symmetry enhancements.

Contribution

It introduces a framework for incorporating O7+ planes into F-theory, expanding the class of achievable 6d superconformal theories and analyzing their anomaly cancellation.

Findings

Realization of 6d SCFTs with symmetric hypermultiplets in SU

Construction of compact models reproducing known perturbative theories

Identification of non-perturbative gauge symmetry enhancements

Abstract

We study the interpretation of O7+ planes in F-theory, mainly in the context of the six-dimensional models. In particular, we study how to assign gauge algebras and matter content to seven-branes and their intersections, and the implication of anomaly cancellation in our construction, generalizing earlier analyses without any O7+ planes. By including O7+ planes we can realize 6d superconformal field theories hitherto unobtainable in F-theory, such as those with hypermultiplets in the symmetric representation of su. We also examine a couple of compact models. These reproduce some famous perturbative models, and in some cases enhance their gauge symmetries non-perturbatively.