Heterotic non-Kähler geometries via polystable bundles on Calabi-Yau threefolds (Q2428142)

Heterotic string models provide interesting Calabi-Yau compactifications for Grand Unification Theories (GUT) and modifications of the Standard Model. However, most of these models are non-torsional and thus can not satisfy the anomaly equation. This short note gives a perturbational construction of torsional supersymmetric heterotic strings. The main difficulty is that smooth spacetimes with \(N=1\) four-dimensional supersymmetry are non-Kähler and can not be directly studied by algebraic methods. In a previous paper, the authors showed that a stable vector bundle \(V\) over a Calabi-Yau 3-fold \(X\) with \(SU(3)\) holonomy satisfying the second Chern class condition \(c_2(X)=c_2(V)\) can be deformed into a simultaneous solution to the equations of motion of the heterotic string and to the Strominger system that enforces supersymmetry. The idea was inspired by \textit{J. Li} and \textit{S. Yau} [J. Differ. Geom. 70, No. 1, 143--181 (2005; Zbl 1102.53052)] and involves perturbing Kähler and Hermitian-Einstein metrics at the same time to avoid dealing with non-Kähler manifolds directly. The main result of this note is a generalization of this construction to polystable bundles \(V\) (direct sums of stable bundles) satisfying the second Chern class condition. The main application, that served as a motivation, is to so-called spectral cover bundles \(V\) [\textit{R. Friedman, J. Morgan} and \textit{E. Witten}, Commun. Math. Phys. 187, No. 3, 679--743 (1997; Zbl 0919.14010)] describing the visible sector of the heterotic string. They satisfy \(c_2(X)=c_2(V)+[W]\), where \([W]\neq0\) is an effective curve class. On elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau 3-folds \(\pi:X\to B\) one can choose a stable bundle \(E\) over \(B\) so that \(V\oplus\pi^*E\) is polystable and satisfies the second Chern class condition. Physically, this corresponds to turning on a hidden sector of the string. Specializing to \(B=\mathbb{F}_1\), the first Hirzebruch surface, the authors obtain concrete examples of three generation torsional GUT models with unbroken gauge groups \(SU(5)\) and \(E_6\).