Abstract
We explore the T-duality web of 6D Heterotic Little String Theories, focusing on flavor algebra reducing deformations. A careful analysis of the full flavor algebra, including Abelian factors, shows that the flavor rank is preserved under T-duality. This suggests a new T-duality invariant in addition to the Coulomb branch dimension and the two-group structure constants. We also engineer Little String Theories with non-simply laced flavor algebras, whose appearance we attribute to certain discrete 3-form fluxes in M-theory. Geometrically, these theories are engineered in F-theory with non-Kähler favorable K3 fibers. This geometric origin leads us to propose that freezing fluxes are preserved across T-duality. Along the way, we discuss various exotic models, including two inequivalent Spin(32)/ℤ2 models that are dual to the same E8 × E8 theory, and a family of self-T-dual models.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Florent Baume and Craig Lawrie for discussions, and Florent Baume, Michele del Zotto and Muyang Liu for collaborations on related topics. The work of FR is supported by the NSF grants PHY-2210333 and PHY-2019786 (The NSF AI Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions). The work of HA, PKO, and FR is also supported by startup funding from Northeastern University.
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Ahmed, H., Oehlmann, PK. & Ruehle, F. T-duality and flavor symmetries in Little String Theories. J. High Energ. Phys. 2024, 61 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP08(2024)061
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP08(2024)061