A number of orbifold constructions have been studied heavily in string- and M-theory over the years, establishing various dualities between different theories.
Can someone point me to a slightly more mathematical reference where the basics of orbifolds, and things like smoothening or blowing up are explained in a way that may be useful for string theory? Specifically, given, say T4/Z2, what is a systematic way to analyze a particular theory on such an orbifold.
I know a few standard cases, like M-theory on S1/Z2 is the strongly-coupled version of the E8×E8 heterotic string, and K3 is in an orbifold limit described by T4/Z2. Of course the standard way seems to be to pick up various math results from papers by Aspinwall, Witten, etc. but I want to know something about a systematic understanding of orbifolds, computing fixed points in the fundamental domain, etc. in a way that seems eventually intuitive.
This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2016-06-08 08:51 (UTC), posted by SE-user leastaction