Conifold transitions and heterotic dualities

Abstract

The first part of this talk will review recent work describing a geometric process by which gauge bundles can traverse conifold transitions in heterotic theories. These transitions lead to seemingly dual heterotic compactifications, generalizing the (0,2) target space duality seen in GLSMs. The second part of this talk will describe ongoing work aimed at investigating whether this is a true duality, reflected for example in the potential structure of the theories, or merely a coincidental matching at the level of the massless spectrum.