Local models of heterotic flux vacua: spacetime and worldsheet aspects

Abstract: We report on some recent progress in understanding heterotic flux compactifications, from a worldsheet perspective mainly. We consider local models consisting in torus fibration over warped Eguchi-Hanson space and non-K\"ahler resolved conifold geometries. We analyze the supergravity solutions and define a double-scaling limit of the resolved singularities, defined such that the geometry is smooth and weakly coupled. We show that, remarkably, the heterotic solutions admit solvable worldsheet CFT descriptions in this limit. This allows in particular to understand the important role of worldsheet non-perturbative effects.