Related papers: Warped String Compactification via Singular Calabi…
We derive an approximate analytic relation between the number of consistent heterotic Calabi-Yau compactifications of string theory with the exact charged matter content of the standard model of particle physics and the topological data of…
We consider the possibility that the unification of the electroweak interactions and the strong force arises from string theory, at energies significantly lower than the string scale. As a tool, an effective grand unified field theory in…
We further study the elliptic genus of the cigar SL(2,R)/U(1) coset superconformal field theory. We find that, even in the small curvature, infinite level limit, there are holomorphic and non-holomorphic parts that are due to the discrete…
A type IIA string compactified on a Calabi-Yau manifold which admits a K3 fibration is believed to be equivalent to a heterotic string in four dimensions. We study cases where a Calabi-Yau manifold can have more than one such fibration…
Deriving the Yukawa couplings and the resulting fermion masses and mixing angles of the Standard Model (SM) from a more fundamental theory remains one of the central outstanding problems in theoretical high-energy physics. It has long been…
Understanding which effective field theories are consistent with an ultraviolet completion in quantum gravity is an important theoretical question. Therefore, it is important to know the structure of the 4D effective theory associated with…
We study string theory in supersymmetric time-dependent backgrounds. In the framework of general relativity, supersymmetry for spacetimes without flux implies the existence of a covariantly constant null vector, and a relatively simple form…
We study compactifications of the 6d E-string theory, the theory of a small E_8 instanton, to four dimensions. In particular we identify N=1 field theories in four dimensions corresponding to compactifications on arbitrary Riemann surfaces…
We investigate orbifold compactifications of the heterotic string, addressing in detail their construction, classification and phenomenological potential. We present a strategy to search for models resembling the minimal supersymmetric…
In this thesis we have studied various applications of asymptotic Hodge theory in string compactifications. This mathematical framework captures how physical couplings of the resulting effective theories behave near field space boundaries…
We present several new examples of nontrivial 4d N=1 superconformal field theories. Some of these theories exhibit exotic global symmetries, including non-simply laced groups (such as $F_4$). They are obtained by studying threebrane probes…
We review recent work which has significantly sharpened our geometric understanding and interpretation of the moduli space of certain $N$=2 superconformal field theories. This has resolved some important issues in mirror symmetry and has…
We present several examples of T^8/P orbifolds with $P \subset SU(4)$. We compute their Hodge numbers and consider turning on discrete torsion. We then study supersymmetric compactifications of type II, heterotic, and type I strings on…
We compute the spectrum of massless gauge singlets in some heterotic string compactifications using Landau-Ginzburg, orbifold and non-linear sigma-model methods. This probes the worldsheet instanton corrections to the quadratic terms in the…
This thesis is concerned with heterotic E8 x E8 string models that can produce quasirealistic N = 1 supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model in the low-energy limit. We start rather generally by deriving the four-dimensional spectrum…
Heterotic string models in $4$-dimensions are the hybrid theories of a left-moving $N=1$ fermionic string whose additional $6$-dimensions are compactified on a $N=2$ SCFT theory with the central charge $9$, and a right-moving bosonic…
We construct more dual pairs of type II-heterotic strings in four dimensions with $N=2,1$ spacetime supersymmetry. On the type II side the construction utilizes the various possible choices of K3 automorphisms with fixed points which…
We consider the type IIA string compactified on the Calabi-Yau space given by a degree 12 hypersurface in the weighted projective space ${\bf P}^4_{(1, 1, 2,2, 6)}$. We express the prepotential of the low-energy effective supergravity…
In these lectures, two different aspects of brane world scenarios in 5d gravity or string theory are discussed. In the first two lectures, work on how warped compactifications of 5d gravity theories can change the guise of the hierarchy…
Motivated by recent developments in the computation of periods for string compactifications with $c=9$, we develop a complementary method which also produces a convenient basis for related calculations. The models are realized as…