Revisiting the classifications of 6d SCFTs and LSTs

Abstract

Abstract Gauge-theoretic anomaly cancellation predicts the existence of many 6d SCFTs and little string theories (LSTs) that have not been given a string theory construction so far. In this paper, we provide an explicit construction of all such “missing” 6d SCFTs and LSTs by using the frozen phase of F-theory. We conjecture that the full set of 6d SCFTs and LSTs is obtained by combining the set of theories constructed in this paper with the set of theories that have been constructed in earlier literature using the unfrozen phase of F-theory. Along the way, we demonstrate that there exist SCFTs that do not descend from LSTs via an RG flow.