Azumaya structure on D-branes and deformations and resolutions of a conifold revisited: Klebanov-Strassler-Witten vs. Polchinski-Grothendieck

Abstract

In this sequel to [L-Y1], [L-L-S-Y], and [L-Y2] (respectively arXiv:0709.1515 [math.AG], arXiv:0809.2121 [math.AG], and arXiv:0901.0342 [math.AG]), we study a D-brane probe on a conifold from the viewpoint of the Azumaya structure on D-branes and toric geometry. The details of how deformations and resolutions of the standard toric conifold $Y$ can be obtained via morphisms from Azumaya points are given. This should be compared with the quantum-field-theoretic/D-brany picture of deformations and resolutions of a conifold via a D-brane probe sitting at the conifold singularity in the work of Klebanov and Witten [K-W] (arXiv:hep-th/9807080) and Klebanov and Strasser [K-S] (arXiv:hep-th/0007191). A comparison with resolutions via noncommutative desingularizations is given in the end.