On the Higgsing and UnHiggsing of Fano 3-folds

Abstract

We study the Higgsing and UnHiggsing of M2-brane theories that probe cones over smooth toric Fano 3-folds, via brane tilings. We find many new examples of M2-brane gauge theories not studied previously in the literature, including those that do not correspond to cones over Fano varieties. Our analysis also provides, upon unHiggsing the known Fano varieties, new examples of quiver gauge theories that describe the same toric variety, but with external point multiplicities. As a byproduct of our results, we discuss an example of a CY 4-fold that does not have a tiling description, and study the Higgsing of this theory.