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Paul S. Aspinwall

Publications and source records attributed to Paul S. Aspinwall.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2024

String Moduli Spaces and Parabolic Factorizations

The symmetric spaces that appear as moduli spaces in string theory and supergravity can be decomposed with explicit metrics using parabolic subgroups. The resulting isometry between the original moduli space and this decomposition can be used to find parametrizations of the moduli. One application is to determine the volume parameter in conformal field moduli spaces for K3 surfaces. Other applications involve simple Dynkin diagram manipulations inducing "going up and down" between symmetric spaces by adding parameters and going to limits respectively. For supersymmetries such as N=6, this involves combinatorics of less familiar "restricted" Dynkin diagrams.

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arXiv2017

Mirror Symmetry and Discriminants

We analyze the locus, together with multiplicities, of "bad" conformal field theories in the compactified moduli space of N=(2,2) superconformal field theories in the context of the generalization of the Batyrev mirror construction using the gauged linear sigma-model. We find this discriminant of singular theories is described beautifully by the GKZ "A-determinant" but only if we use a noncompact toric Calabi-Yau variety on the A-model side and logarithmic coordinates on the B-model side. The two are related by "local" mirror symmetry. The corresponding statement for the compact case requires changing multiplicities in the GKZ determinant. We then describe a natural structure for monodromies around components of this discriminant in terms of spherical functors. This can be considered a categorification of the GKZ A-determinant. Each component of the discriminant is naturally associated with a category of massless D-branes.

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arXiv2015

General Mirror Pairs for Gauged Linear Sigma Models

We carefully analyze the conditions for an abelian gauged linear sigma-model to exhibit nontrivial IR behavior described by a nonsingular superconformal field theory determining a superstring vacuum. This is done without reference to a geometric phase, by associating singular behavior to a noncompact space of (semi-)classical vacua. We find that models determined by reflexive combinatorial data are nonsingular for generic values of their parameters. This condition has the pleasant feature that the mirror of a nonsingular gauged linear sigma-model is another such model, but it is clearly too strong and we provide an example of a non-reflexive mirror pair. We discuss a weaker condition inspired by considering extremal transitions, which is also mirror symmetric and which we conjecture to be sufficient. We apply these ideas to extremal transitions and to understanding the way in which both Berglund-Hubsch mirror symmetry and the Vafa-Witten mirror orbifold with discrete torsion can be seen as special cases of the general combinatorial duality of GLSMs. In the former case we encounter an example showing that our weaker condition is still not necessary.

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arXiv2014

Exoflops in Two Dimensions

An exoflop occurs in the gauged linear $σ$-model by varying the Kahler form so that a subspace appears to shrink to a point and then reemerge "outside" the original manifold. This occurs for K3 surfaces where a rational curve is "flopped" from inside to outside the K3 surface. We see that whether a rational curve contracts to an orbifold phase or an exoflop depends on whether this curve is a line or conic. We study how the D-brane category of the smooth K3 surface is described by the exoflop and, in particular, find the location of a massless D-brane in the exoflop limit. We relate exoflops to noncommutative resolutions.

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arXiv2014

Rational Curves and (0,2)-Deformations

We compare the count of (0,2)-deformation moduli fields for N=(2,2) conformal field theories on orbifolds and sigma-models on resolutions of the orbifold. The latter involves counting deformations of the tangent sheaf. We see there is generally a discrepancy which is expected to be explained by worldsheet instanton corrections coming from rational curves in the orbifold resolution. We analyze the rational curves on the resolution to determine such corrections and discover that irreducible toric rational curves account for some, but not all, of the discrepancy. In particular, this proves that there must be worldsheet instanton corrections beyond those from smooth isolated rational curves.

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arXiv2014

A McKay-Like Correspondence for (0,2)-Deformations

We present a local computation of deformations of the tangent bundle for a resolved orbifold singularity C^d/G. These correspond to (0,2)-deformations of (2,2)-theories. A McKay-like correspondence is found predicting the dimension of the space of first-order deformations from simple calculations involving the group. This is confirmed in two dimensions using the Kronheimer-Nakajima quiver construction. In higher dimensions such a computation is subject to nontrivial worldsheet instanton corrections and some examples are given where this happens. However, we conjecture that the special crepant resolution given by the G-Hilbert scheme is never subject to such corrections, and show this is true in an infinite number of cases. Amusingly, for three-dimensional examples where G is abelian, the moduli space is associated to a quiver given by the toric fan of the blow-up. It is shown that an orbifold of the form C^3/Z7 has a nontrivial superpotential and thus an obstructed moduli space.

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arXiv2013

Categories of Massless D-Branes and del Pezzo Surfaces

In analogy with the physical concept of a massless D-brane, we define a notion of "Q-masslessness" for objects in the derived category. This is defined in terms of monodromy around singularities in the stringy Kahler moduli space and is relatively easy to study using spherical functors. We consider several examples in which del Pezzo surfaces and other rational surfaces in Calabi-Yau threefolds are contracted. For precisely the del Pezzo surfaces that can be written as hypersurfaces in weighted P3, the category of Q-massless objects is a "fractional Calabi-Yau" category of graded matrix factorizations.

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arXiv2011

Elusive Worldsheet Instantons in Heterotic String Compactifications

We compute the spectrum of massless gauge singlets in some heterotic string compactifications using Landau-Ginzburg, orbifold and non-linear sigma-model methods. This probes the worldsheet instanton corrections to the quadratic terms in the spacetime superpotential. Previous results predict that some of these states remain massless when instanton effects are included. We find vanishing masses in many cases not covered by these predictions. However, we discover that in the case of the Z-manifold the corrections do not vanish. Despite this, in all the examples studied, we find that the massless spectrum in the orbifold limit agrees with the nonlinear sigma-model computation.

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arXiv2010

(0,2) Elephants

We enumerate massless E6 singlets for (0,2)-compactifications of the heterotic string on a Calabi-Yau threefold with the "standard embedding" in three distinct ways. In the large radius limit of the threefold, these singlets count deformations of the Calabi-Yau together with its tangent bundle. In the "small-radius" limit we apply Landau-Ginzburg methods. In the orbifold limit we use a combination of geometry and free field methods. In general these counts differ. We show how to identify states between these phases and how certain states vanish from the massless spectrum as one deforms the complex structure or Kaehler form away from the Gepner point. The appearance of extra singlets for particular values of complex structure is explored in all three pictures, and our results suggest that this does not depend on the Kaehler moduli.

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arXiv2010

Quivers from Matrix Factorizations

We discuss how matrix factorizations offer a practical method of computing the quiver and associated superpotential for a hypersurface singularity. This method also yields explicit geometrical interpretations of D-branes (i.e., quiver representations) on a resolution given in terms of Grassmannians. As an example we analyze some non-toric singularities which are resolved by a single CP1 but have "length" greater than one. These examples have a much richer structure than conifolds. A picture is proposed that relates matrix factorizations in Landau-Ginzburg theories to the way that matrix factorizations are used in this paper to perform noncommutative resolutions.

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arXiv2009

Decompactifications and Massless D-Branes in Hybrid Models

A method of determining the mass spectrum of BPS D-branes in any phase limit of a gauged linear sigma model is introduced. A ring associated to monodromy is defined and one considers K-theory to be a module over this ring. A simple but interesting class of hybrid models with Landau-Ginzburg fibres over CPn are analyzed using special Kaehler geometry and D-brane probes. In some cases the hybrid limit is an infinite distance in moduli space and corresponds to a decompactification. In other cases the hybrid limit is at a finite distance and acquires massless D-branes. An example studied appears to correspond to a novel theory of supergravity with an SU(2) gauge symmetry where the gauge and gravitational couplings are necessarily tied to each other.

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arXiv2009

Probing Geometry with Stability Conditions

The notion that the geometry of spacetime is given by the moduli space of 0-branes is examined in four examples of Calabi-Yau threefolds. An important consideration when determining the moduli space of D-branes is the stability condition and this is key in our analysis. In the first two examples, the flop and the orbifold blowup, no surprises are found. Next, an exoflop is considered where the linear sigma model implies a CP1 external to the Calabi-Yau threefold is part of the geometry. The 0-brane probe sees no such external CP1 and furthermore exhibits a surprising discontinuity when following an extremal transition associated to the exoflop. Finally we consider a hybrid model of a Landau--Ginzburg fibration over a CP1. Using the technology of matrix factorizations we find a D-brane probe whose moduli space is this CP1 but it is not a 0-brane and is not stable at the large radius limit of the Calabi-Yau manifold.

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arXiv2009

D-Branes on Toric Calabi-Yau Varieties

We analyze B-type D-branes on noncompact toric Calabi--Yau spaces. A general program is presented to find a set of tilting line bundles that yields the associated quiver and its relations. In many cases, this set remains fixed as one moves between phases in the Kähler moduli space. This gives a particularly simple picture of how the derived category remains invariant across all phases. The combinatorial problems involving local cohomology used to determine the tilting set are also related to questions of Pi-stability as one moves between phases. As a result, in some cases precisely those line bundles in the tilting set remain stable over the whole moduli space in some sense.

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arXiv2007

Topological D-Branes and Commutative Algebra

We show that questions concerning the topological B-model on a Calabi-Yau manifold in the Landau-Ginzburg phase can be rephrased in the language of commutative algebra. This yields interesting and very practical methods for analyzing the model. We demonstrate how the relevant "Ext" groups and superpotentials can be computed efficiently by computer algebra packages such as Macaulay. This picture leads us to conjecture a general description of D-branes in linear sigma models in terms of triangulated categories. Each phase of the linear sigma model is associated with a different presentation of the category of D-branes.

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arXiv2006

The Landau-Ginzburg to Calabi-Yau Dictionary for D-Branes

Based on work by Orlov, we give a precise recipe for mapping between B-type D-branes in a Landau-Ginzburg orbifold model (or Gepner model) and the corresponding large-radius Calabi-Yau manifold. The D-branes in Landau-Ginzburg theories correspond to matrix factorizations and the D-branes on the Calabi-Yau manifolds are objects in the derived category. We give several examples including branes on quotient singularities associated to weighted projective spaces. We are able to confirm several conjectures and statements in the literature.

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arXiv2006

Black Hole Entropy, Marginal Stability and Mirror Symmetry

We consider the superconformal quantum mechanics associated to BPS black holes in type IIB Calabi-Yau compactifications. This quantum mechanics describes the dynamics of D-branes in the near-horizon attractor geometry of the black hole. In many cases, the black hole entropy can be found by counting the number of chiral primaries in this quantum mechanics. Both the attractor mechanism and notions of marginal stability play important roles in generating the large number of microstates required to explain this entropy. We compute the microscopic entropy explicitly in a few different cases, where the theory reduces to quantum mechanics on the moduli space of special Lagrangians. Under certain assumptions, the problem may be solved by implementing mirror symmetry as three T-dualities: this is essentially the mirror of a calculation by Gaiotto, Strominger and Yin. In some simple cases, the calculation may be done in greater generality without resorting to conjectures about mirror symmetry. For example, the K3xT^2 case may be studied precisely using the Fourier-Mukai transform.

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arXiv2005

Superpotentials for Quiver Gauge Theories

We compute superpotentials for quiver gauge theories arising from marginal D-Brane decay on collapsed del Pezzo cycles S in a Calabi-Yau X. This is done using the machinery of A-infinity products in the derived category of coherent sheaves of X, which in turn is related to the derived category of S and quiver path algebras. We confirm that the superpotential is what one might have guessed from analyzing the moduli space, i.e., it is linear in the fields corresponding to the Ext2's of the quiver and that each such Ext2 multiplies a polynomial in Ext1's equal to precisely the relation represented by the Ext2.

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