Related papers: Towards Mirror Symmetry with Semi-Realistic Inters…
Mirror symmetry for a semi-stable degeneration of a Calabi-Yau manifold was first investigated by Doran-Harder-Thompson when the degeneration fiber is a union of two (quasi)-Fano manifolds. They propose a topological construction of a…
We consider mirror symmetry for (essentially arbitrary) hypersurfaces in (possibly noncompact) toric varieties from the perspective of the Strominger-Yau-Zaslow (SYZ) conjecture. Given a hypersurface $H$ in a toric variety $V$ we construct…
The open string spectra of the B-type D-branes of the N=2 E-models are calculated. Using these results we match the boundary states to the matrix factorisations of the corresponding Landau-Ginzburg models. The identification allows us to…
The main purpose of this paper is to give a mathematical definition of ``mirror symmetry'' for Calabi-Yau and G_2 manifolds. More specifically, we explain how to assign a G_2 manifold (M,\phi,\Lambda), with the calibration 3-form \phi and…
Among $T^7/\Gamma$ orbifold compactifications of $M$-theory, we examine models containing the particle physics Standard Model in four-dimensional spacetimes, which appear as fixed subspaces of the ten-dimensional spacetimes at each end of…
A certain class of $A$-branes in mirrors of toric Calabi-Yau threefolds can be described through the framework of foliations. This allows to develop an explicit description of their moduli spaces based on a cell decomposition, with strata…
A while ago, examples of N=1 vacua in D=6 were constructed as orientifolds of Type IIB string theory compactified on the K3 surface. Among the interesting features of those models was the presence of D5-branes behaving like small…
We study electric-magnetic duality in compactifications of M-theory on twisted connected sum (TCS) $G_2$ manifolds via duality with F-theory. Specifically, we study the physics of the D3-branes in F-theory compactified on a Calabi-Yau…
We formulate and study a class of massive N=2 supersymmetric gauge field theories coupled to boundary degrees of freedom on the strip. For some values of the parameters, the infrared limits of these theories can be interpreted as open…
In the framework of type IIB string compactifications on Calabi-Yau orientifolds we describe how to construct consistent global embeddings of models with fractional D3-branes and connected `flavour' D7-branes at del Pezzo singularities with…
We consider gauged linear sigma models (GLSM) on $\mathbb{RP}^2$, obtained from a parity projection of $S^2$. The theories admit squashing deformation, much like GLSM on $S^2$, which allows us to interpret the partition function as the…
We construct fractional branes in Landau-Ginzburg orbifold categories and study their behavior under marginal closed string perturbations. This approach is shown to be more general than the rational boundary state construction. In…
We clarify the relation between six-dimensional Abelian orbifold compactifications of the heterotic string and smooth heterotic K3 compactifications with line bundles for both SO(32) and E_8 x E_8 gauge groups. The T^4/Z_N cases for N=2,3,4…
We revisit the question of gauge coupling unification at the string scale in orbifold compactifications of the heterotic string for the supersymmetric Standard Model. In the presence of discrete Wilson lines threshold corrections with…
We study total and partial supersymmetry breaking by freely acting orbifolds, or equivalently by Scherk-Schwarz compactifications, in type I string theory. In particular, we describe a four-dimensional chiral compactification with…
Using a ``Superstrings with Torsion'' type description, we study a class of IIB orientifolds in which spacefilling O5 planes and D5 branes wrap the T^2 fiber in a warped modification of the product of 4D Minkowski space and a T^2 fibration.…
We construct global semi-realistic supersymmetric models with intersecting D6-branes on the non-factorisable orientifold $T^6/(\mathbb{Z}_4\times\Omega\mathcal{R})$. The non-factorisable structure gives rise to differences compared to the…
We study the D-brane spectrum on a two-parameter Calabi-Yau model. The analysis is based on different tools in distinct regions of the moduli space: wrapped brane configurations on elliptic fibrations near the large radius limit, and SCFT…
We discuss issues related to orientifolds and the brane realization for gauge theories with orthogonal and symplectic groups. We specifically discuss the case of theories with (hidden) global SO(2n) symmetry, from three to six dimensions.…
We briefly review attempts to construct string theories that yield the standard model, concentrating on models with a geometric interpretation. Calabi-Yau compactifications are discussed in the context of both the weakly coupled heterotic…