UNC-CH String Theory Seminar
Dr. Ben Heidenreich, Harvard University
“Torsion, Duality, and the Wilderness of Orientifolds”
I discuss O3/O7 orientifolds of toric Calabi-Yau singularities. Classifying these orientifolds by their discrete torsion I show that many have no known CFT dual, including simple examples such as del Pezzo singularities without torsion. Using brane tilings and deconfinement, I construct gauge theories conjectured to flow to the missing CFT duals. I provide strong evidence for this conjecture based on the pattern of S-dualities predicted by the SL(2,Z) invariance of type IIB string theory and observed in the gauge theory.