Description
The simplest class of flux compactifications, type IIB toroidal orientifolds
with N=2 flux, is dual to a class of purely geometric IIA Calabi-Yau
compactifications with no flux. Since the duality relates warped and nonwarped
compactifications, it has the potential to teach us how to define warped
Kaluza-Klein reduction, for which we do not yet have a satisfactory definition.
The duality also maps D3 instantons to worldsheet instantons, so it furnishes a
check on our understanding of instanton calculus. As a step toward these goals,
I will discuss aspects of the duality recently explored in collaboration with
Donagi and Gao. The first is an analog of F-theory for T^4 fibrations, which is
useful for encoding the dual CY geometry. The second is an analog of
D(imenional) duality that relates the CYs to auxiliary surfaces that are simpler
to study. As a byproduct, we learn how to construct new Calabi-Yau manifolds
with nontrivial fundamental group, which should be useful for heterotic model
building.
Author
Michael Schulz
(Bryn Mawr College)
