Brane Configurations for Branes at Conifolds

TL;DR

This paper explores the T duality between type IIB D3 branes at conifold singularities and type IIA D4 brane configurations, revealing connections to phase transitions, Seiberg duality, and chiral gauge theories.

Contribution

It introduces a new brane setup for describing N=1 chiral theories and links phase transitions in moduli space to brane crossings and gauge dualities.

Findings

T duality relates D3 branes at singularities to D4 branes between NS fivebranes.

Phase transitions correspond to crossing of rotated NS fivebranes.

Models include families of chiral theories connected to brane box models.

Abstract

We study the T duality between a set of type IIB D3 branes atnon-orbifold threefold singularities, and type IIA configurations of D4 branes stretched between relatively rotated NS fivebranes. The four-dimensional N=1 field theories on the D3 brane world-volume can be easily described using the IIA brane configuration. These models include families of chiral theories continuously connected to the theories appearing in brane box models (or D3 branes at orbifold singularities). We propose that phase transitions in the K\"ahler moduli space of the singularity are related to the crossing of rotated NS fivebranes in the T dual picture, and thus to Seiberg's duality in one of the gauge factors. We also comment on the inclusion of orientifold planes in the IIA brane picture.