We construct a statistical model of crystal melting to count BPS bound states of D0 and D2 branes on a single D6 brane wrapping an arbitrary toric Calabi-Yau threefold. The three-dimensional crystalline structure is determined by the quiver diagram and the brane tiling which characterize the low energy effective theory of D branes. The crystal is composed of atoms of different colors, each of which corresponds to a node of the quiver diagram, and the chemical bond is dictated by the arrows of the quiver diagram. BPS states are constructed by removing atoms from the crystal. This generalizes the earlier results on the BPS state counting to an arbitrary non-compact toric Calabi-Yau manifold. We point out that a proper understanding of the relation between the topological string theory and the crystal melting involves the wall crossing in the Donaldson-Thomas theory.
We construct a two-dimensional crystal melting model which reproduces the BPS index of D2-D0 states bound to a non-compact D4-brane on an arbitrary toric Calabi-Yau singularity. The crystalline structure depends on the toric divisor wrapped by the D4-brane. The molten crystals are in one-to-one correspondence with the torus fixed points of the moduli space of the quiver gauge theory on D-branes. The F- and D-term constraints of the gauge theory are regarded as a generalization of the ADHM constraints on instantons. We also show in several examples that our model is consistent with the wall-cro…
The open string sector of the topological B-model on CY $(m+2)$-folds is described by $m$-graded quivers with superpotentials. This correspondence generalizes the connection between CY $(m+2)$-folds and gauge theories on the worldvolume of D$(5-2m)$-branes for $m=0,\ldots,3$ to arbitrary $m$. In this paper we introduce the Calabi-Yau product, a new algorithm that starting from the known quiver theories for a pair of toric CY$_{m+2}$ and CY$_{n+2}$ produces the quiver theory for a related CY$_{m+n+3}$. This method significantly supersedes existing ones, enabling the simple determination of quiv…
We show that "non-polynomial" deformations of semiample (minimal) nondegenerate Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in complete simplicial toric varieties can be realized as quasismooth complete intersections in higher dimensional simplicial toric varieties.
There are easy "polynomial" deformations of Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in toric varieties performed by changing the coefficients of the defining polynomial of the hypersurface. In this paper, we explicitly constructed the ``non-polynomial'' deformations of Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces, which arise from deformations of the ambient toric variety.
We show that equivariant elliptic genera of toric Calabi-Yau 3-folds are generalized weak Jacobi forms. We also introduce a notion of averaged equivariant elliptic genera of toric Calabi-Yau 3-folds, and show that they are ordinary weak Jacobi forms given by an explicit formula predicted by Eguchi and Sugawara.
We study the relationship between the statistical mechanics of crystal melting and instanton counting in N=4 supersymmetric U(1) gauge theory on toric surfaces. We argue that, in contrast to their six-dimensional cousins, the two problems are related but not identical. We develop a vertex formalism for the crystal partition function, which calculates a generating function for the dimension 0 and 1 subschemes of the toric surface, and describe the modifications required to obtain the corresponding gauge theory partition function.
Using Cayley trick, we define the notions of mixed toric residues and mixed Hessians associated with $r$ Laurent polynomials $f_1,...,f_r$.We conjecture that the values of mixed toric residues on the mixed Hessians are determined by mixed volumes of the Newton polytopes of $f_1,...,f_r$. Using mixed toric residues, we generalize our Toric Residue Mirror Conjecture to the case of Calabi-Yau complete intersections in Gorenstein toric Fano varieties obtained from nef-partitions of reflexive polytopes.
We identify a class of autoequivalences of triangulated categories of singularities associated with Calabi-Yau complete intersections in toric varieties. Elements of this class satisfy relations that are directly linked to the toric data.
We derive the combinatorial representations of Picard group and deformation space of anti-canonical hypersurfaces of a toric variety using techniques in toric geometry. The mirror cohomology correspondence in the context of mirror symmetry is established for a pair of Calabi-Yau (CY) ${\sf n}$-spaces in toric varieties defined by reflexive polytopes for an arbitrary dimension ${\sf n}$. We further identify the Kahler cone of the toric variety and degeneration cone of CY hypersurfaces, by which the Kahler cone and degeneration cone for a mirror CY pair are interchangeable under mirror symmetry.…
Motivated by previous computations of Y. Cao, M. Kool and the author, we propose square roots and sign rules for the vertex and edge terms that compute Donaldson-Thomas invariants of a toric Calabi-Yau 4-fold, and prove that they are canonical, exploiting the combinatorics of plane and solid partitions.
We find through a systematic analysis that all but 29,223 of the 473.8 million 4D reflexive polytopes found by Kreuzer and Skarke have a 2D reflexive subpolytope. Such a subpolytope is generally associated with the presence of an elliptic or genus one fibration in the corresponding birational equivalence class of Calabi-Yau threefolds. This extends the growing body of evidence that most Calabi-Yau threefolds have an elliptically fibered phase.
We study the B-model chiral ring of Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in Batyrev's mirror construction. The main result is an explicit description of a subring of the chiral ring of semiample regular (transversal to torus orbits) Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces. This subring includes the marginal operators and contains all information about the correlation functions used by physicists. Computation of the chiral ring passes through a description of cohomology of semiample hypersurfaces. Here, we develop the techniques for calculating of the cohomology of resolutions.
Special fibrations of toric varieties have been used by physicists, e.g. the school of Candelas, to construct dual pairs in the study of Het/F-theory duality. Motivated by this, we investigate in this paper the details of toric morphisms between toric varieties. In particular, a complete toric description of fibers - both generic and non-generic -, image, and the flattening stratification of a toric morphism are given. Two examples are provided to illustrate the discussions. We then turn to the study of the restriction of a toric morphism to a toric hypersurface. The details of this can be und…
We consider regular Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in $N$-dimensional smooth toric varieties. On such a hypersurface in the neighborhood of the large complex structure limit point we construct a fibration over a sphere $S^{N-1}$ whose generic fibers are tori $T^{N-1}$. Also for certain one-parameter families of such hypersurfaces we show that the monodromy transformation is induced by a translation of the $T^{N-1}$ fibration by a section. Finally we construct a dual fibration and provide some evidence that it describes the mirror family.
In this paper, we give a construction of the global Chern-Simons functions for toric Calabi-Yau stacks of dimension three using strong exceptional collections. The moduli spaces of sheaves on such stacks can be identified with critical loci of these functions. We give two applications of these functions. First, we prove Joyce's integrality conjecture of generalized DT invariants on local surfaces. Second, we prove a dimension reduction formula for virtual motives, which leads to two recursion formulas for motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariants.
We develop a combinatorial approach to the construction of general smooth compact base surfaces that support elliptic Calabi-Yau threefolds. This extends previous analyses that have relied on toric or semi-toric structure. The resulting algorithm is used to construct all classes of such base surfaces $S$ with $h^{1, 1} (S) < 8$ and all base surfaces over which there is an elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau threefold $X$ with Hodge number $h^{2, 1} (X) \geq 150$. These two sets can be used todescribe all 6D F-theory models that have fewer than seven tensor multiplets or more than 150 neutral scala…
We systematically analyze the fibration structure of toric hypersurface Calabi-Yau threefolds with large and small Hodge numbers. We show that there are only four such Calabi-Yau threefolds with $h^{1, 1} \geq 140$ or $h^{2, 1} \geq 140$ that do not have manifest elliptic or genus one fibers arising from a fibration of the associated 4D polytope. There is a genus one fibration whenever either Hodge number is 150 or greater, and an elliptic fibration when either Hodge number is 228 or greater. We find that for small $h^{1, 1}$ the fraction of polytopes in the KS database that do not have a genu…
We explain how to form a novel dataset of simply connected Calabi-Yau threefolds via the Gross-Siebert algorithm. We expect these to degenerate to Calabi-Yau toric hypersurfaces with certain Gorenstein (not necessarily isolated) singularities. In particular, we explain how to `smooth the boundary' of a class of $4$-dimensional reflexive polytopes to obtain a polarised tropical manifolds. We compute topological invariants of a compactified torus fibration over each such tropical manifold, expected to be homotopy equivalent to the general fibre of the Gross-Siebert smoothing. We consider a famil…
These lecture notes are an introduction to toric geometry. Particular focus is put on the description of toric local Calabi-Yau varieties, such as needed in applications to the AdS/CFT correspondence in string theory. The point of view taken in these lectures is mostly algebro-geometric but no prior knowledge of algebraic geometry is assumed. After introducing the necessary mathematical definitions, we discuss the construction of toric varieties as holomorphic quotients. We discuss the resolution and deformation of toric Calabi-Yau singularities. We also explain the gauged linear sigma-model (…
We present an explicit non-singular complete toric Calabi-Yau metric using the local solution recently found by Chen, Lu and Pope. This metric gives a new supergravity solution representing D3-branes.
These are introductory lecture notes on complex geometry, Calabi-Yau manifolds and toric geometry. We first define basic concepts of complex and Kahler geometry. We then proceed with an analysis of various definitions of Calabi-Yau manifolds. The last section provides a short introduction to toric geometry, aimed at constructing Calabi-Yau manifolds in two different ways; as hypersurfaces in toric varieties and as local toric Calabi-Yau threefolds. These lecture notes supplement a mini-course that was given by the author at the Modave Summer School in Mathematical Physics 2005, and at CERN in …
We introduce brane brick models, a novel type of Type IIA brane configurations consisting of D4-branes ending on an NS5-brane. Brane brick models are T-dual to D1-branes over singular toric Calabi-Yau 4-folds. They fully encode the infinite class of 2d (generically) N=(0,2) gauge theories on the worldvolume of the D1-branes and streamline their connection to the probed geometries. For this purpose, we also introduce new combinatorial procedures for deriving the Calabi-Yau associated to a given gauge theory and vice versa.
We study BPS spectra of D-branes on local Calabi-Yau threefolds $\mathcal{O}(-p)\oplus\mathcal{O}(p-2)\to \mathbb{P}^1$ with $p=0,1$, corresponding to $\mathbb{C}^3/\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ and the resolved conifold. Nonabelianization for exponential networks is applied to compute directly unframed BPS indices counting states with D2 and D0 brane charges. Known results on these BPS spectra are correctly reproduced by computing new types of BPS invariants of 3d-5d BPS states, encoded by nonabelianization, through their wall-crossing. We also develop the notion of exponential BPS graphs for the simplest …
We show that minimal models of nondegenerated hypersufaces defined by Laurent polynomials with a $d$-dimensional Newton polytope $Δ$ are Calabi-Yau varieties $X$ if and only if the Fine interior of $Δ$ consists of a single lattice point. We give a combinatorial formula for computing the stringy Euler number of $X$. This formula allows to test mirror symmetry in cases when $Δ$ is not a reflexive polytope. In particular we apply this formula to pairs of lattice polytopes $(Δ, Δ^{\vee})$ that appear in the Mavlyutov's generalization of the polar duality for reflexive polytopes. Some examples of M…
We study Hilbert schemes of points on a smooth projective Calabi-Yau 4-fold $X$. We define $\mathrm{DT}_4$ invariants by integrating the Euler class of a tautological vector bundle $L^{[n]}$ against the virtual class. We conjecture a formula for their generating series, which we prove in certain cases when $L$ corresponds to a smooth divisor on $X$. A parallel equivariant conjecture for toric Calabi-Yau 4-folds is proposed. This conjecture is proved for smooth toric divisors and verified for more general toric divisors in many examples. Combining the equivariant conjecture with a vertex calcul…
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 …
After a brief introduction into the use of Calabi--Yau varieties in string dualities, and the role of toric geometry in that context, we review the classification of toric Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces and present some results on complete intersections. While no proof of the existence of a finite bound on the Hodge numbers is known, all new data stay inside the familiar range $h_{11}+h_{12}\le 502$.
During the last years we have generated a large number of data related to Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in toric varieties which can be described by reflexive polyhedra. We classified all reflexive polyhedra in three dimensions leading to K3 hypersurfaces and have nearly completed the four dimensional case relevant to Calabi-Yau threefolds. In addition, we have analysed for many of the resulting spaces whether they allow fibration structures of the types that are relevant in the context of superstring dualities. In this survey we want to give background information both on how we obtained these dat…
These notes contain a brief introduction to the construction of toric Calabi--Yau hypersurfaces and complete intersections with a focus on issues relevant for string duality calculations. The last two sections can be read independently and report on recent results and work in progress, including torsion in cohomology, classification issues and topological transitions.
We find sufficient conditions for a principal toric bundle over compact Kähler manifolds to admit Calabi-Yau connections with torsion. With the aids of a topological classification, we construct such geometry on $n(S^2\times S^4)#(n+1)(S^3\times S^3)$
We present a proof of the mirror conjecture of Aganagic-Vafa [arXiv:hep-th/0012041] and Aganagic-Klemm-Vafa [arXiv:hep-th/0105045] on disk enumeration in toric Calabi-Yau 3-folds for all smooth semi-projective toric Calabi-Yau 3-folds. We consider both inner and outer branes, at arbitrary framing. In particular, we recover previous results on the conjecture for (i) an inner brane at zero framing in the total space of the canonical line bundle of the projective plane (Graber-Zaslow [arXiv:hep-th/0109075]), (ii) an outer brane at arbitrary framing in the resolved conifold (Zhou [arXiv:1001.0447]…
We compare the sets of Calabi-Yau threefolds with large Hodge numbers that are constructed using toric hypersurface methods with those can be constructed as elliptic fibrations using Weierstrass model techniques motivated by F-theory. There is a close correspondence between the structure of "tops" in the toric polytope construction and Tate form tunings of Weierstrass models for elliptic fibrations. We find that all of the Hodge number pairs ($h^{1, 1},h^{2, 1}$) with $h^{1,1}$ or $h^{2, 1}\geq 240$ that are associated with threefolds in the Kreuzer-Skarke database can be realized explicitly b…
We analyze freely-acting discrete symmetries of Calabi-Yau three-folds defined as hypersurfaces in ambient toric four-folds. An algorithm which allows the systematic classification of such symmetries which are linearly realised on the toric ambient space is devised. This algorithm is applied to all Calabi-Yau manifolds with $h^{1,1}(X)\leq 3$ obtained by triangulation from the Kreuzer-Skarke list, a list of some $350$ manifolds. All previously known freely-acting symmetries on these manifolds are correctly reproduced and we find five manifolds with freely-acting symmetries. These include a sin…
Using the algebraic geometric approach of Berenstein et {\it al} (hep-th/005087 and hep-th/009209) and methods of toric geometry, we study non commutative (NC) orbifolds of Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in toric varieties with discrete torsion. We first develop a new way of getting complex $d$ mirror Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces $H_Δ^{\ast d}$ in toric manifolds $M_{Δ}^{\ast (d+1)}$ with a $C^{\ast r}$ action and analyze the general group of the discrete isometries of $H_Δ^{\ast d}$. Then we build a general class of $d$ complex dimension NC mirror Calabi-Yau orbifolds where the non commutativity parame…
The study of the geometry of Calabi-Yau fourfolds is relevant for compactifications of string theory, M-theory, and F-theory to various dimensions. This work introduces the mathematical machinery to derive the complete moduli dependence of the periods of non-trivial three-forms for fourfolds realized as hypersurfaces in toric ambient spaces. It sets the stage to determine Picard-Fuchs-type differential equations and integral expressions for these forms. The key tool is the observation that non-trivial three-forms on hypersurfaces in toric ambient spaces always stem from divisors that are build…
According to a recently proposed scheme for the classification of reflexive polyhedra, weight systems of a certain type play a prominent role. These weight systems are classified for the cases $n=3$ and $n=4$, corresponding to toric varieties with K3 and Calabi--Yau hypersurfaces, respectively. For $n=3$ we find the well known 95 weight systems corresponding to weighted $\IP^3$'s that allow transverse polynomials, whereas for $n=4$ there are 184026 weight systems, including the 7555 weight systems for weighted $\IP^4$'s. It is proven (without computer) that the Newton polyhedra corresponding t…
Recent results on duality between string theories and connectedness of their moduli spaces seem to go a long way toward establishing the uniqueness of an underlying theory. For the large class of Calabi-Yau 3-folds that can be embedded as hypersurfaces in toric varieties the proof of mathematical connectedness via singular limits is greatly simplified by using polytopes that are maximal with respect to certain single or multiple weight systems. We identify the multiple weight systems occurring in this approach. We show that all of the corresponding Calabi-Yau manifolds are connected among them…
We propose a new method to find gravity duals to a large class of three-dimensional Chern-Simons-matter theories, using techniques from dimer models. The gravity dual is given by M-theory on AdS_4\times Y_7, where Y_7 is an arbitrary seven-dimensional toric Sasaki-Einstein manifold. The cone of Y_7 is a toric Calabi-Yau 4-fold, which coincides with a branch of the vacuum moduli space of Chern-Simons-matter theories.
The number of rational points in toric data are given for two-parameter Calabi-Yau $n$-folds as toric hypersurfaces over finite fields $\mathbb F_p$ . We find that the fundamental period is equal to the number of rational points of the Calabi-Yau $n$-folds in zeroth order $p$-adic expansion. By analyzing the solution set of the GKZ-system given by the enhanced polyhedron, we deduce that under type II/F-theory duality the 3D and 4D Calabi-Yau manifolds have the same number of rational points in zeroth order. Taking the quintic and its duality as an example, the number of rational points in some…
There is a large number of different ways of constructing Calabi-Yau manifolds, as well as related non-geometric formulations, relevant in string compactifications. Showcasing this diversity, we discuss explicit deformation families of discretely distinct Hirzebruch hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{P}^n \times \mathbb{P}^1$ and identify their toric counterparts in detail. This precise isomorphism is then used to investigate some of their special divisors of interest, and in particular the secondary deformation family of their Calabi-Yau subspaces. In particular, most of the above so called Hirzebruch…
We propose a new exact quantization condition for a class of quantum mechanical systems derived from local toric Calabi-Yau three-folds. Our proposal includes all contributions to the energy spectrum which are non-perturbative in the Planck constant, and is much simpler than the available quantization condition in the literature. We check that our proposal is consistent with previous works and implies non-trivial relations among the topological Gopakumar-Vafa invariants of the toric Calabi-Yau geometries. Together with the recent developments, our proposal opens a new avenue in the long invest…
Recently, Nekrasov discovered a new "genus" for Hilbert schemes of points on $\mathbb{C}^4$. We conjecture a DT/PT correspondence for Nekrasov genera for toric Calabi-Yau 4-folds. We verify our conjecture in several cases using a vertex formalism. Taking a certain limit of the equivariant parameters, we recover the cohomological DT/PT correspondence for toric Calabi-Yau 4-folds recently conjectured by the first two authors. Another limit gives a dimensional reduction to the $K$-theoretic DT/PT correspondence for toric 3-folds conjectured by Nekrasov-Okounkov. As an application of our technique…
We study disk-instantons ending on coisotropic branes preserved by real torus action in toric Calabi-Yau 3-folds. In particular, we find fermion zero modes on disk multi-covers ending on a coisotropic brane in local P^1 geometry with normal bundle (-a,a-2). It turns out that, independent of a, disk multi-cover formula is the same as for disks ending on a Lagrangian brane in resolved conifold. We further construct an example of a coisotropic brane in Calabi-Yau 3-fold used in geometric engineering of 4d N=2 SU(K) gauge theory, where this brane provides a surface defect.
We investigate the structure of a simple class of affine toric Calabi-Yau varieties that are defined from quiver representations based on finite eulerian directed graphs (digraphs). The vanishing first Chern class of these varieties just follows from the characterisation of eulerian digraphs as being connected with all vertices balanced. Some structure theory is used to show how any eulerian digraph can be generated by iterating combinations of just a few canonical graph-theoretic moves. We describe the effect of each of these moves on the lattice polytopes which encode the toric Calabi-Yau va…
We investigate Hodge-theoretic properties of Calabi-Yau complete intersections $V$ of $r$ semi-ample divisors in $d$-dimensional toric Fano varieties having at most Gorenstein singularities. Our main purpose is to show that the combinatorial duality proposed by second author agrees with the duality for Hodge numbers predicted by mirror symmetry. It is expected that the complete verification of mirror symmetry predictions for singular Calabi-Yau varieties $V$ of arbitrary dimension demands considerations of so called {\em string-theoretic Hodge numbers} $h^{p,q}_{\rm st}(V)$. We restrict oursel…
We employ machine learning techniques to investigate the volume minimum of Sasaki-Einstein base manifolds of non-compact toric Calabi-Yau 3-folds. We find that the minimum volume can be approximated via a second order multiple linear regression on standard topological quantities obtained from the corresponding toric diagram. The approximation improves further after invoking a convolutional neural network with the full toric diagram of the Calabi-Yau 3-folds as the input. We are thereby able to circumvent any minimization procedure that was previously necessary and find an explicit mapping betw…
Using the algebraic geometry method of Berenstein and Leigh (BL), hep-th/0009209 and hep-th/0105229), and considering singular toric varieties ${\cal V}_{d+1}$ with NC irrational torus fibration, we construct NC extensions ${\cal M}_{d}^{(nc)}$ of complex d dimension Calabi-Yau (CY) manifolds embedded in ${\cal V}_{d+1}^{(nc)}$. We give realizations of the NC $\mathbf{C}^{\ast r}$ toric group, derive the constraint eqs for NC Calabi-Yau (NCCY) manifolds ${\cal M}^{nc}_d$ embedded in ${\cal V}_{d+1}^{nc}$ and work out solutions for their generators. We study fractional $D$ branes at singulariti…
We find a new relation between the spectral problem for Bloch electrons on a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice in a uniform magnetic field and that for quantum geometry of a toric Calabi-Yau threefold. We show that a difference equation for the Bloch electron is identical to a quantum mirror curve of the Calabi-Yau threefold. As an application, we show that bandwidths of the electron spectra in the weak magnetic flux regime are systematically calculated by the topological string free energies at conifold singular points in the Nekrasov-Shatashvili limit.
We study BPS states of 5d $\mathcal{N}=1$ $SU(2)$ Yang-Mills theory on $S^1\times \mathbb{R}^4$. Geometric engineering relates these to enumerative invariants for the local Hirzebruch surface $\mathbb{F}_0$. We illustrate computations of Vafa-Witten invariants via exponential networks, verifying fiber-base symmetry of the spectrum at certain points in moduli space, and matching with mirror descriptions based on quivers and exceptional collections. Albeit infinite, parts of the spectrum organize in families described by simple algebraic equations. Varying the radius of the M-theory circle inter…
We find that for many Calabi-Yau threefolds with elliptic or genus one fibrations mirror symmetry factorizes between the fiber and the base of the fibration. In the simplest examples, the generic CY elliptic fibration over any toric base surface $B$ that supports an elliptic Calabi-Yau threefold has a mirror that is an elliptic fibration over a dual toric base surface $\tilde{B}$ that is related through toric geometry to the line bundle $-6K_B$. The Kreuzer-Skarke database includes all these examples and gives a wide range of other more complicated constructions where mirror symmetry also fact…
We develop means of computing exact degerenacies of BPS black holes on toric Calabi-Yau manifolds. We show that the gauge theory on the D4 branes wrapping ample divisors reduces to 2D q-deformed Yang-Mills theory on necklaces of P^1's. As explicit examples we consider local P^2, P^1 x P^1 and A_k type ALE space times C. At large N the D-brane partition function factorizes as a sum over squares of chiral blocks, the leading one of which is the topological closed string amplitude on the Calabi-Yau. This is in complete agreement with the recent conjecture of Ooguri, Strominger and Vafa.
The Hodge numbers of generic elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau threefolds over toric base surfaces fill out the "shield" structure previously identified by Kreuzer and Skarke. The connectivity structure of these spaces and bounds on the Hodge numbers are illuminated by considerations from F-theory and the minimal model program. In particular, there is a rigorous bound on the Hodge number h_{21} <= 491 for any elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau threefold. The threefolds with the largest known Hodge numbers are associated with a sequence of blow-ups of toric bases beginning with the Hirzebruch surfac…
We carry out a systematic study of a class of 6D F-theory models and associated Calabi-Yau threefolds that are constructed using base surfaces with a generalization of toric structure. In particular, we determine all smooth surfaces with a structure invariant under a single C^* action (sometimes called "T-varieties" in the mathematical literature) that can act as bases for an elliptic fibration with section of a Calabi-Yau threefold. We identify 162,404 distinct bases, which include as a subset the previously studied set of strictly toric bases. Calabi-Yau threefolds constructed in this fashio…
In the context of string dualities, fibration structures of Calabi-Yau manifolds play a prominent role. In particular, elliptic and K3 fibered Calabi-Yau fourfolds are important for dualities between string compactifications with four flat space-time dimensions. A natural framework for studying explicit examples of such fibrations is given by Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in toric varieties, because this class of varieties is sufficiently large to provide examples with very different features while still allowing a large degree of explicit control. In this paper, many examples for elliptic K3 fiber…
While Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in toric ambient spaces provide a huge number of examples, theoretical considerations as well as applications to string phenomenology often suggest a broader perspective. With even the question of finiteness of diffeomorphism types of CY 3-folds unsettled, an important idea is Reid's conjecture that the moduli spaces are connected by certain singular transitions. We summarize the results of our recent construction of a large class of new CY spaces with small Picard numbers and of their mirrors via conifold transitions and discuss the benefits of other approaches …
