T-Duality and Flavor Symmetries in Little String Theories

Abstract

We explore the T-duality web of 6D Heterotic Little String Theories, focusing on flavor algebra reducing deformations. A careful analysis of the full flavor algebra, including Abelian factors, shows that the flavor rank is preserved under T-duality. This suggests a new T-duality invariant in addition to the Coulomb branch dimension and the two-group structure constants. We also engineer Little String Theories with non-simply laced flavor algebras, whose appearance we attribute to certain discrete 3-form fluxes in M-theory. Geometrically, these theories are engineered in F-theory with non-K\"ahler favorable K3 fibers. This geometric origin leads us to propose that freezing fluxes are preserved across T-duality. Along the way, we discuss various exotic models, including two inequivalent $\text{Spin(32)}/\mathbb{Z}_2$ models that are dual to the same $\text{E}_8 \times \text{E}_8$ theory, and a family of self-T-dual models.