Open-closed string duality from orbifolded conifolds (Q2581865)

The authors develop further the studies of dualities for field/string theories defined on orbifolded conifolds and their resolved versions, respectively. Such a duality was first observed for Chern-Simons/topological string theory by \textit{R. Gopakumar} and \textit{C. Vafa} [Adv. Theor. Math. Phys. 3, No. 5, 1415--1443 (1999; Zbl 0972.81135)] and embedded in type IIA strings by \textit{C. Vafa} [J. Math. Phys. 42, No. 7, 2798--2817 (2001; Zbl 1060.81594)], rendering the topological transition a geometric one between D-branes and strings. There is also a type IIB formulation which has been extended to a large class of geometric transition dualities for various local Calabi-Yau geometries. The subject of the paper is \(N=1\) supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory obtained from type IIB D5-branes or type IIA D4-branes. The gauge group is a product of unitary groups obtained from orbifolding the 3-dimensional conifold by the discrete group \(\mathbb{Z}_k \times \mathbb{Z}_l\) and then resolving the singularities. Strong coupling effects are analysed in the deformed geometry and a closed string duality via a geometric transition in toric geometry is proposed. The \(T\)-dual IIA picture and its lift to 11-dimensional \(M\)-theory are also considered.