GLSMs for non-polynomial deformations and generalized complete intersection Calabi-Yau manifolds

Abstract

Gauged Linear Sigma Models (GLSMs) have long been a key tool in understanding Calabi-Yau compactifications of string theory. While descriptions of complete intersections of polynomial defining equations have long been understood in this context, a full treatment of non-polynomial complex structure deformations has been absent from the literature. Likewise, the somewhat more exotic generalized complete intersection Calabi-Yau construction has resisted a GLSM description. In this paper we resolve both of these omissions using completely standard GLSMs with polynomial superpotentials. The non-polynomial structure seen in the geometric constructions only arises in the associated GLSM upon restriction to the vacuum space of the theory. This feature enables the construction to avoid singularities in field space that could have arisen if non-polynomial structure were incorporated directly into the GLSM superpotential.

18 pages