Twisting K3 x T^2 Orbifolds

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new class of geometric twists of Voisin-Borcea type Calabi-Yau manifolds, exploring their impact on superpotentials in type IIA orientifolds and extending previous models to include more general twists.

Contribution

It constructs and analyzes a novel class of geometric twists of K3 x T^2 orbifolds, extending the scope of previous models to include blow-up modes and nongeometric cases.

Findings

Constructed geometric twists that fiber K3 over T^2 while preserving Z_2 symmetry.

Extended the class of twists beyond those inherited from T^6.

Applicable to arbitrary K3 fibered Calabi-Yau manifolds and nongeometric constructions.

Abstract

We construct a class of geometric twists of Calabi-Yau manifolds of Voisin-Borcea type (K3 x T^2)/Z_2 and study the superpotential in a type IIA orientifold based on this geometry. The twists modify the direct product by fibering the K3 over T^2 while preserving the Z_2 involution. As an important application, the Voisin-Borcea class contains T^6/(Z_2 x Z_2), the usual setting for intersecting D6 brane model building. Past work in this context considered only those twists inherited from T^6, but our work extends these twists to a subset of the blow-up modes. Our work naturally generalizes to arbitrary K3 fibered Calabi-Yau manifolds and to nongeometric constructions.