D-Branes and Quotient Singularities of Calabi-Yau Fourfolds

TL;DR

This paper studies the gauge theories on D1-branes at Calabi-Yau fourfold singularities, showing how anomalies are canceled and describing the resulting Higgs moduli space as a birationally equivalent, but not necessarily Calabi-Yau, smooth fourfold.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of (0,2) gauge theories on D1-branes at Calabi-Yau fourfold singularities, including anomaly cancellation and moduli space characterization.

Findings

Gauge anomaly canceled via coupling to R-R chiral bosons.

Higgs moduli space is a smooth fourfold birational to the original.

Moduli space may not retain Calabi-Yau properties.

Abstract

We investigate a (0,2) gauge theory realized on the world volume of the type IIB D1-brane at the singular point of a Calabi-Yau fourfold. It is argued that the gauge anomaly can be canceled via coupling to the R-R chiral bosons in bulk IIB string. We find that for a generic choice of the Fayet-Iliopoulos parameters on the world volume, the Higgs moduli space is a smooth fourfold birational to the original Calabi-Yau fourfold, but is not necessarily a Calabi-Yau manifold.