Speaker
Thorsten Schimmanek
Description
In general, a projective Calabi-Yau threefold with nodal singularities does not admit a Kaehler small resolution.
This happens in particular if the exceptional curves are torsion in homology.
However, the presence of torsion also leads to the possibility of turning on a flat but topologically non-trivial B-field that stabilizes the singularities.
After briefly introducing some of the relevant geometric ideas, we discuss how GLSMs can be used to study strings that propagate on examples of such backgrounds.
We will then describe geometric examples for which a GLSM description is currently unknown and speculate on potential directions for their construction.