Half-hypermultiplets and incomplete/complete resolutions in F-theory

We consider resolutions of codimension-two enhanced singularities from $SO(12)$ to $E_7$ and from $E_7$ to $E_8$ in six-dimensional F-theory, where a half-hypermultiplet arises for generic complex structures achieving them. The exceptional fibers at the enhanced point exhibit different structures depending on how the colliding 7-brane approaches the stack of gauge 7-branes, as previously observed by Morrison and Taylor in the case of the enhancement from $SU(6)$ to $E_6$. When the colliding brane approaches them as $O(s)$, where $s$ is the coordinate of the base space along the gauge 7-branes, the resolution process ends up with fewer exceptional fibers than naively expected from the Kodaira classification, with a non-Dynkin intersection matrix including half-integral intersection numbers. We confirm that the exceptional fibers at the enhanced point form extremal rays of the cone of the positive weights of the relevant pseudo-real representation, explaining why a half-hypermultiplet arises there. By altering the ordering of the singularities blown up in the process, we obtain, for both $SO(12)rightarrow E_7$ and $E_7rightarrow E_8$, the intersection diagram on every other row of the corresponding box graphs. We present detailed derivations of the intersection diagrams of the exceptional fibers at the singularity enhanced points by examining how an exceptional curve is lifted up on the chart arising due to the subsequent blowing-up process. When the colliding brane approaches the stack of branes as $O(s^2)$, we obtain additional conifold singularity at the enhanced point, which completes the full Dynkin diagram of the enhanced group as was found previously.