N=1 type IIA brane configurations, chirality and T-duality

We consider four-dimensional N=1 field theories realized by type IIA brane configurations of NS-branes and D4-branes, in the presence of orientifold six-planes and D6-branes. These configurations are known to present interesting effects associated to the appearance of chiral symmetries and chiral matter in the four-dimensional field theory. We focus on models with one compact direction (elliptic models) and show that, under T-duality, the configurations are mapped to a set of type IIB D3-branes probing N=1 orientifolds of C2/ZN singularities. We explicitly construct these orientifolds, and show the field theories on the D3-brane probes indeed reproduce the field theories constructed using the IIA brane configurations. This T-duality map allows us to understand the type IIB realization of several exotic brane dynamics effects on the type IIA side: Flavor doubling, the splitting of D6-branes and O6-planes in crossing an NS-brane and the effect of a non-zero type IIA cosmological constant turn out to have surprisingly standard type IIB counterparts.