Algebraic Topology of Calabi-Yau Threefolds in Toric Varieties

These notes contain a brief introduction to the construction of toric Calabi--Yau hypersurfaces and complete intersections with a focus on issues relevant for string duality calculations. The last two sections can be read independently and report on recent results and work in progress, including torsion in cohomology, classification issues and topological transitions.

In this paper, we compute the integral cohomology groups for all examples of Calabi-Yau 3-folds obtained from hypersurfaces in 4-dimensional Gorenstein toric Fano varieties. Among 473 800 776 families of Calabi-Yau 3-folds $X$ corresponding to 4-dimensional reflexive polytopes there exist exactly 32 families having non-trivial torsion in $H^*(X, \Z)$. We came to an interesting observation that the torsion subgroups in $H^2$ and $H^3$ are exchanged by the mirror symmetry invol...

After a brief introduction into the use of Calabi--Yau varieties in string dualities, and the role of toric geometry in that context, we review the classification of toric Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces and present some results on complete intersections. While no proof of the existence of a finite bound on the Hodge numbers is known, all new data stay inside the familiar range $h_{11}+h_{12}\le 502$.

Kreuzer and Skarke famously produced the largest known database of Calabi-Yau threefolds by providing a complete construction of all 473,800,776 reflexive polyhedra that exist in four dimensions. These polyhedra describe the singular limits of ambient toric varieties in which Calabi-Yau threefolds can exist as hypersurfaces. In this paper, we review how to extract topological and geometric information about Calabi-Yau threefolds using the toric construction, and we provide, i...

In this article, we summarize combinatorial description of complete intersection Calabi-Yau threefolds in Hibi toric varieties. Such Calabi-Yau threefolds have at worst conifold singularities, and are often smoothable to non-singular Calabi-Yau threefolds. We focus on such non-singular Calabi-Yau threefolds of Picard number one, and illustrate the calculation of topological invariants, using new motivating examples.

We prove the Integral Hodge Conjecture for curve classes on smooth varieties of dimension at least three with nef anticanonical divisor constructed as a complete intersection of ample hypersurfaces in a smooth toric variety. In particular, this includes the case of smooth anticanonical hypersurfaces in toric Fano varieties. In fact, using results of Casagrande and the toric MMP, we prove that in each case, $H_2(X,\mathbb{Z})$ is generated by classes of rational curves.

We prove a formula for the Hodge numbers of square-free divisors of Calabi-Yau threefold hypersurfaces in toric varieties. Euclidean branes wrapping divisors affect the vacuum structure of Calabi-Yau compactifications of type IIB string theory, M-theory, and F-theory. Determining the nonperturbative couplings due to Euclidean branes on a divisor $D$ requires counting fermion zero modes, which depend on the Hodge numbers $h^i({\cal{O}}_D)$. Suppose that $X$ is a smooth Calabi-...

These are introductory lecture notes on complex geometry, Calabi-Yau manifolds and toric geometry. We first define basic concepts of complex and Kahler geometry. We then proceed with an analysis of various definitions of Calabi-Yau manifolds. The last section provides a short introduction to toric geometry, aimed at constructing Calabi-Yau manifolds in two different ways; as hypersurfaces in toric varieties and as local toric Calabi-Yau threefolds. These lecture notes supplem...

This paper is a continuation of our paper math.AG/0205321 where we have built a combinatorial model for the torus fibrations of Calabi-Yau toric hypersurfaces. This part addresses the connection between the model torus fibration and the complex and K\"ahler geometry of the hypersurfaces.

We use Batyrev-Borisov's formula for the generating function of stringy Hodge numbers of Calabi-Yau varieties realized as complete intersections in toric varieties in order to get closed form expressions for Hodge numbers of Calabi-Yau threefolds in five-dimensional ambient spaces. These expressions involve counts of lattice points on faces of associated Cayley polytopes. Using the same techniques, similar expressions may be obtained for higher dimensional varieties realized ...