BPS states of exceptional non-critical strings

Abstract

We study the BPS states of non-critical strings which arise for zero size instantons of exceptional groups. This is accomplished by using F-theory and M-theory duals and by employing mirror symmetry to compute the degeneracy of membranes wrapped around 2-cycles of the Calabi-Yau threefold. We find evidence for a number of novel physical phenomena, including having infinitely many light states with the first lightest state including a nearly massless gravitino.

Little strings and T-duality

“…Just like our IIA strings are closely related to the 'M-strings' of 6d (2, 0) CFT, the E 8 × E 8 little strings would be closely related to the so-called E-strings of the 6d (1, 0) CFT, with E 8 global symmetry [30,31]. The E-string elliptic genera have been recently studied in [32], from 2d (0, 4) gauge theories.…”

Non-critical strings, del Pezzo singularities and Seiberg-Witten curves

“…As one increases the tension φ, one hits the boundary between phases I and II. Associated to the vanishing 2-cycle is a massless hypermultiplet [4] with winding/momentum q = (l, p, m) = (1, −1, 0) [7]. In fact, in this limit there is also a net number of 480 fundamental string momentum modes that are equally relevant.…”

“…These form certain degenerate systems of generalized hypergeometric type 3 F 2 , and are known [7] to govern the relevant periods of the del Pezzo surfaces. Above, the operators 5) are the Picard-Fuchs operators [28] of the following elliptic curves:…”

“…Its description in terms of toric geometry and its phases has been discussed in much detail in [16,36,37,7].…”

“…In particular, new theories have been discovered that involve non-critical strings in various dimensions [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. These theories are still difficult to access directly and it is easier to study them after further compactification.…”