Nongeometry, Duality Twists, and the Worldsheet

TL;DR

This paper explores nongeometric string backgrounds using orbifold techniques, demonstrating their connection to spacetime duality twists and constructing explicit worldsheet models for certain cases.

Contribution

It explicitly connects interpolating orbifolds with spacetime duality twists and constructs examples with consistent worldsheet descriptions.

Findings

Nongeometric backgrounds can be constructed via orbifolds.

Explicit examples of worldsheet descriptions for nongeometric backgrounds.

Most nongeometric backgrounds lack simple orbifold constructions.

Abstract

In this paper, we use orbifold methods to construct nongeometric backgrounds, and argue that they correspond to the spacetimes discussed in \cite{dh,wwf}. More precisely, we make explicit through several examples the connection between interpolating orbifolds and spacetime duality twists. We argue that generic nongeometric backgrounds arising from duality twists will not have simple orbifold constructions and then proceed to construct several examples which do have a consistent worldsheet description.