Discrete symmetries in Heterotic/F-theory duality and mirror symmetry

Abstract We study aspects of Heterotic/F-theory duality for compactifications with Abelian discrete gauge symmetries. We consider F-theory compactifications on genus-one fibered Calabi-Yau manifolds with n-sections, associated with the Tate-Shafarevich group ℤ n $$ {\mathbb{Z}}_n $$ . Such models are obtained by studying first a specific toric set-up whose associated Heterotic vector bundle has structure group ℤ n $$ {\mathbb{Z}}_n $$ . By employing a conjectured Heterotic/F-theory mirror symmetry we construct dual geometries of these original toric models, where in the stable degeneration limit we obtain a discrete gauge symmetry of order two and three, for compactifications to six dimensions. We provide explicit constructions of mirror-pairs for symmetric examples with ℤ 2 $$ {\mathbb{Z}}_2 $$ and ℤ 3 $$ {\mathbb{Z}}_3 $$ , in six dimensions. The Heterotic models with symmetric discrete symmetries are related in field theory to a Higgsing of Heterotic models with two symmetric abelian U(1) gauge factors, where due to the Stückelberg mechanism only a diagonal U(1) factor remains massless, and thus after Higgsing only a diagonal discrete symmetry of order n is present in the Heterotic models and detected via Heterotic/F-theory duality. These constructions also provide further evidence for the conjectured mirror symmetry in Heterotic/F-theory at the level of fibrations with torsional sections and those with multi-sections