Light states in the interior of CY moduli spaces

In string theory one finds that states become massless as one approaches boundaries in Calabi-Yau moduli spaces. In this talk we look in the opposite direction, that is, we search for points where the mass gap for these light states is maximized — the so-called desert. In explicit examples we identify these desert points, and find that they correspond to special points in the moduli space of the CY, such as orbifold points and rank two attractors.