Ubiquity of non-geometry in heterotic compactifications

Abstract

We study the effect of quantum corrections on heterotic compactifications on elliptic fibrations away from the stable degeneration limit, elaborating on a recent observation by Malmendier and Morrison. We show that already for the simplest non-trivial elliptic fibration the effect is quite dramatic: the $I_1$ degeneration with trivial gauge background dynamically splits into two T-fects with monodromy around each T-fect being (conjugate to) T-duality along one of the legs of the $T^2$. This implies that almost every elliptic heterotic compactification becomes a non-geometric T-fold away from the stable degeneration limit. We also point out a subtlety due to this non-geometric splitting at finite fiber size. It arises when determining, via heterotic/F-theory duality, the SCFTs associated to a small number of pointlike instantons probing heterotic ADE singularities. Along the way we resolve various puzzles in the literature.

23 pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (12)

• Physics of Infinite Complex Structure Limits in eight Dimensions
• Infinitely Many M2-instanton Corrections to M-theory on $G_2$-manifolds
• Unwinding strings in semi-flatland
• Nongeometric heterotic strings and dual F-theory with enhanced gauge groups
• Non-minimal Elliptic Threefolds at Infinite Distance II: Asymptotic Physics
• Unbroken $E_7\times E_7$ nongeometric heterotic strings, stable degenerations and enhanced gauge groups in F-theory duals
• NS5-Branes and Line Bundles in Heterotic/F-Theory Duality
• Non-Geometric Vacua of the $\text{Spin}(32)/{\mathbb{Z}}_2$ Heterotic String and Little String Theories
• Non-duality in three dimensions
• A note on T-folds and T3 fibrations
• New perspectives in the duality of M-theory, heterotic strings, and F-theory
• Eight-dimensional non-geometric heterotic strings and enhanced gauge groups