Related papers: D-branes at Singularities and String Phenomenology
M theory compactifications on G_2 holonomy manifolds, whilst supersymmetric, require singularities in order to obtain non-Abelian gauge groups, chiral fermions and other properties necessary for a realistic model of particle physics. We…
We study different phenomenological aspects of compact, D=4, N=1 Type IIB orientifolds considered as models for unification of the standard model and gravity. We discuss the structure of the compactification, string and unification scales…
This is an introduction to the non-perturbative excitations of string theory known as D-branes. Topics covered include their definition and main properties, their role in dualities and their dynamics. Based on lectures given at LACES 2019,…
An overview of string theory in the maximally supersymmetric plane-wave background is given, and some supersymmetric D-branes are discussed.
In this Ph.D. thesis, we study some aspects of strings and branes. We mainly focus on anomalous D-brane couplings and on non-supersymmetric branes. In Chapter 2, we illustrate three key concepts in a field theory context: duality,…
1. Preliminaries. 2. Heterotic string and motivations for large volume compactifications; 2.1 Gauge coupling unification; 2.2 Supersymmetry breaking by compactification. 3. M-theory on S^1/Z_2 \times Calabi-Yau. 4. Type I/I' string theory…
We construct SUGRA solutions of brane configurations of intersecting Dp and NS branes. These solutions are semi-localized in the sense that one of the intersecting branes is smeared along the world volume of the other, while the second is…
From the quantum field theory point of view, matter and gauge fields are generally expected to be localised around branes or topological defects occurring in extra dimensions. Here I discuss a simple scenario where, by starting with a five…
These lectures intend to give a pedagogical introduction into some of the developments in string theory during the last years. They include perturbative T-duality and non perturbative S- and U-dualities, their unavoidable demand for…
We show how to cast an interacting system of M--branes into manifestly gauge-invariant form using an arrangement of higher-dimensional Dirac surfaces. Classical M--theory has a cohomologically nontrivial and noncommutative set of gauge…
We explain how, starting with a stack of D4-branes ending on an NS5-brane in type IIA string theory, one can, via T-duality and the topological-holomorphic nature of the relevant worldvolume theories, relate (i) the lattice models realized…
We explain how multiplicative bundle gerbes over a compact, connected and simple Lie group $G$ lead to a certain fusion category of equivariant bundle gerbe modules given by pre-quantizable Hamiltonian $LG$-manifolds arising from…
This paper studies the compatibility of having a grand unification scheme for particle physics, while at the same time having a perturbative string theory description of such a scheme on a D-brane. This is studied in a model independent…
We represent B fields and higher p-form potentials on a manifold M as connections on affine bundles over M. We realize D branes on M as special submanifolds of these affine bundles. We check the physical relevance of this representation by…
This is the written version of my talk at SUSY '98. It presents a geometric characterisation of the allowed near-horizon geometries of supersymmetric branes. We focus primarily on the M2-brane, but results for other branes (e.g., the…
We consider gauged maximal supergravities with CSO(p,q,r) gauge groups and their relation to the branes of string and M-theory. The gauge groups are characterised by n mass parameters, where n is the transverse dimension of the brane. We…
We use brane configurations and SL(2,Z) symmetry of the type IIB string to construct mirror N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories in three dimensions. The mirror map exchanges Higgs and Coulomb branches, Fayet-Iliopoulos and mass parameters and…
This is a series of remedial lectures on open and unoriented strings for the heterotic string generation. The particular focus is on the interesting features that arise under T-duality---D-branes and orientifolds. The final lecture…
We study effective quiver gauge theories arising from a stack of D3-branes on certain Calabi-Yau singularities. Our point of view is a first principle approach via open topological string theory. This means that we construct the natural…
We show that M-theory on spaces with irreducible holonomy represent Type IIA backgrounds in which a collection of D6-branes wrap a supersymmetric cycle in a manifold with a holonomy group different from the one appearing in the M-theory…