D-brane probes, branched double covers, and noncommutative resolutions

Understand

This paper describes D-brane probes of theories arising in abelian gauged linear sigma models (GLSMs) describing branched double covers and noncommutative resolutions thereof, via nonperturbative effects rather than as the critical locus of a superpotential.

• As these theories can be described as IR limits of Landau-Ginzburg models, technically this paper is an exercise in utilizing (sheafy) matrix factorizations.
• For Landau-Ginzburg models which are believed to flow in the IR to smooth branched double covers, our D-brane probes recover the structure of the branched double cover (and flat nontrivial B fields), verifying previous results.
• In addition to smooth branched double covers, the same class of Landau-Ginzburg models is also believed to sometimes flow to `noncommutative resolutions' of singular spaces.