Related papers: Deforming, revolving and resolving - New paths in …
This is the author's PhD thesis. Two main sections address various aspects of mirror symmetry for compact Calabi-Yau threefolds and the roles that classically modular varieties play in string theory compactifications. The main results…
We review a systematic construction of $\cx N=1$ supersymmetric heterotic string vacua using mirror symmetry. The method provides a large class of explicit solutions for stable, holomorphic vector bundles on Calabi-Yau n-folds Z_n in terms…
We review the Kaluza-Klein reduction of Type IIA string theory on Calabi-Yau fourfolds and apply mirror symmetry to the resulting two-dimensional $ \mathcal{N}=(2,2) $ effective theories. In the course of the reduction we focus especially…
Theories in more than ten dimensions play an important role in understanding nonperturbative aspects of string theory. Consistent compactifications of such theories can be constructed via Calabi-Yau fourfolds. These models can be analyzed…
We discuss the use of gauge fields to stabilize complex structure moduli in Calabi-Yau three-fold compactifications of heterotic string and M-theory. The requirement that the gauge fields in such models preserve supersymmetry leads to a…
We report on a new class of flux vacua generically present in Calabi-Yau compactifications of type-IIB string theory. At these vacua, the mass spectrum of the complete axio-dilaton/complex structure sector is given, to leading order in…
We advocate a framework for constructing perturbative closed string compactifications which do not have large-radius limits. The idea is to augment the class of vacua which can be described as fibrations by enlarging the monodromy group…
In order to lift the continuous moduli space of string vacua, non-trivial fluxes may be the essential input. In this talk I summarize aspects of two approaches to compactifications in the presence of fluxes: (i) generalized Scherk-Schwarz…
String theory is the prime candidate for the theory of everything. However, it must be defined in ten dimensions to be consistent. To get 4D physics, the 6 other dimensions should be curled up in a small compact manifold, this procedure is…
We search for phenomenologically viable vacua of IIB string flux compactifications on Calabi-Yau orientifolds with a single Kaehler modulus. We perform both analytic studies and numerical searches in order to find models with de Sitter…
We present a pedagogical overview of flux compactifications in string theory, from the basic ideas to the most recent developments. We concentrate on closed string fluxes in type II theories. We start by reviewing the supersymmetric flux…
We investigate a simple class of type II string compactifications which incorporate nongeometric "fluxes" in addition to "geometric flux" and the usual H-field and R-R fluxes. These compactifications are nongeometric analogues of the…
We study compactifications of Type IIB string theory on a K3 \times T^2/Z_2 orientifold in the presence of RR and NS flux. We find the most general supersymmetry preserving, Poincare invariant, vacua in this model. All the complex structure…
Mirror symmetry relates type IIB string theory on a Calabi-Yau 3-fold to type IIA on the mirror CY manifold, whose complex structure and Kaehler moduli spaces are exchanged. We show that the mirror map is a particular case of a more general…
This is a very brief survey of some results in the geometry of string duality delivered at a lecture given at ICM 1998, Berlin. String Duality is the statement that one kind of string theory compactified on one space is equivalent in some…
We give an introduction to the statistical approach to studying vacua of string/M theory, and discuss recent results of Ashok and Douglas on counting supersymmetric flux vacua in type IIb Calabi-Yau compactification. To appear in the…
Geometric modularity has recently been conjectured to be a characteristic feature for flux vacua with $W=0$. This paper provides support for the conjecture by computing motivic modular forms in a direct way for several string…
We study heterotic Calabi--Yau compactifications with NSNS three-form flux in view of moduli stabilisation and investigate whether the value $|W_0|$ of the flux superpotential evaluated at supersymmetric minima can be small. Unlike in type…
We study infinite-distance limits in the moduli space of perturbative string vacua. The remarkable interplay of string dualities seems to determine a highly non-trivial dichotomy, summarized by the emergent string conjecture, by which in…
We present a new way to construct de Sitter vacua in type IIB flux compactifications, in which the interplay of the leading perturbative and non-perturbative effects stabilize all moduli in dS vacua at parametrically large volume. Here, the…