Type IIA Flux Vacua and $\alpha'$-corrections

Abstract

We analyse type IIA Calabi-Yau orientifolds with backgroud fluxes, taking into account the effect of perturbative $\alpha'$-corrections. In particular, we consider the $\alpha'$-corrections that modify the metrics in the K\"ahler sector of the compactification. As it has been argued in the literature, including such $\alpha'$-corrections allows to construct the mirror duals of type IIB Calabi-Yau flux compactifications, in which the effect of flux backreaction is under control. We compute the $\alpha'$-corrected scalar potential generated by the presence of RR and NS fluxes, and reformulate it as a bilinear of the flux-axion polynomials invariant under the discrete shift symmetries of the compactification. The use of such invariants allows to express in a compact and simple manner the conditions for Minkowski and AdS flux vacua, and to extract the effect of $\alpha'$-corrections on them.