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arXiv · 2606.05287

String dualities and wedge singularities

Ivano Basile·Dieter Lust
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Abstract

We study strings propagating in backgrounds with a wedge singularity, namely whose internal sector describes a wedge sum of closed manifolds. We focus on the wedge sum of two circles, which was recently argued to provide a quantum geometry for an M-theoretic description of type 0 strings, along with a much wider non-supersymmetric duality web stemming from quotients thereof. In the context of this proposal, we investigate whether the worldsheet features of type IIA strings, together with strong-coupling ingredients, can consistently reproduce the expectation of a weakly coupled type 0A frame. To this end, we combine worldsheet effects due to the wedge singularity with the emergence proposal applied to D0-branes probing it. We find that the resulting potential reproduces the correct tree-level mass of the tachyon in a specific scaling limit. We also discuss the possibility of kinematic obstructions to our worldsheet approach using the framework of topological modular forms, and comment on some puzzles and open questions.

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Ivano Basile, Dieter Lust. 2026-06-03. String dualities and wedge singularities. https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.05287

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