New Type IIB Backgrounds and Aspects of Their Field Theory Duals

In this paper we study aspects of geometries in Type IIA and Type IIB String theory and elaborate on their field theory dual pairs. The backgrounds are associated with reductions to Type IIA of solutions with $G_2$ holonomy in eleven dimensions. We classify these backgrounds according to their G-structure, perform a non-Abelian T-duality on them and find new Type IIB configurations presenting {\it dynamical} $SU(2)$-structure. We study some aspects of the associated field theories defined by these new backgrounds. Various technical details are clearly spelled out.