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We describe physical phenomena associated with a class of transitions that occur in the study of supersymmetric three-cycles in Calabi-Yau threefolds. The transitions in question occur at real codimension one in the complex structure moduli…
We engineer a class of quiver gauge theories with several interesting features by studying D-branes at a simple Calabi-Yau singularity. At weak 't Hooft coupling we argue using field theory techniques that these theories admit both…
We consider type IIA brane configurations, similar to those that realize SO(2N) supersymmetric QCD, that include orientifold planes and anti-branes. Such brane configurations lead to Sp(2N) field theories that become supersymmetric in the…
Two-dimensional string vacua with Massive Spectrum boson-fermion Degeneracy Symmetry (MSDS) are explicitly constructed in Type II and Heterotic superstring theories. The study of their moduli space indicates the existence of large marginal…
We examine the Abelian Higgs model in (d+1)-dimensional anti-de Sitter space with an ultraviolet brane. The gauge symmetry is broken by a bulk Higgs vacuum expectation value triggered on the brane. We propose two separate Goldstone boson…
Spontaneous symmetry breaking is studied within a simple version of the light-front sigma model with fermions. Its vacuum structure is derived by an implementation of global symmetries in terms of unitary operators in a finite volume with…
We apply the technique of supersymmetric localization to exactly compute the $S^5$ partition function of several large $N$ superconformal field theories in five dimensions that have $AdS_6$ duals in massive type IIA supergravity. The…
We study supergravity models in four dimensions where the hidden sector is superconformal and strongly-coupled over several decades of energy below the Planck scale, before undergoing spontaneous breakdown of scale invariance and…
We discuss higher spin gauge symmetry breaking in AdS space from a holographic prespective. Indeed, the AdS/CFT correspondence implies that N=4 SYM theory at vanishing coupling constant is dual to a theory in AdS which exhibits higher spin…
We study gravity duals of large N non-supersymmetric gauge theories with matter in the fundamental representation by introducing a D7-brane probe into deformed AdS backgrounds. In particular, we consider a D7-brane probe in both the AdS…
We construct metastable configurations of branes and anti-branes wrapping 2-spheres inside local Calabi-Yau manifolds and study their large N duals. These duals are Calabi-Yau manifolds in which the wrapped 2-spheres have been replaced by…
We develop off-shell formulations for ${\cal N}=1$ and ${\cal N}=2$ anti-de Sitter supergravity theories in three spacetime dimensions that contain gauge two-forms in the auxiliary field sector. These formulations are shown to allow…
Near-horizon geometry of coincident M2-branes at a conical singularity is related to M-theory on AdS4 times an appropriate seven-dimensional manifold X7. For X_7=N^{0,1,0}, squashing deformation is known to lead to spontaneous (super)…
We study the condensation of localized closed string tachyons on AdS orbifolds both from the bulk and boundary theory viewpoints. We first extend the known results for AdS_5/Z_k to AdS_3/Z_k case, and we proposed that the AdS_3/Z_k decays…
The weakly-coupled heterotic string is known to have problems of dilaton/moduli stabilization, supersymmetry breaking (by hidden-sector gaugino condensation), gauge coupling unification (or the Newton's constant), QCD axion, as well as…
In this paper, based on the principles of Gauge/gavity duality, we explore the field theory description of certain special class of strongly coupled hyperscaling violating QFTs in the presence of scalar deformations near the…
We study marginal and relevant supersymmetric deformations of the N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions. Our primary innovation is the interpretation of the moduli spaces of vacua of these theories as non-commutative spaces. The…
We study conformal gravity as an alternative theory of gravitation. For conformal gravity to be phenomenologically viable requires that the conformal symmetry is not manifest at the energy scales of the other known physical forces. Hence we…
We propose a brane configuration for the (2+1)d, $\mathcal{N}=2$ superconformal theories (CFT$_3$) arising from M2-branes probing toric Calabi-Yau 4-fold cones, using a T-duality transformation of M-theory. We obtain intersections of…
We analyze in detail a specific 5-dimensional realization of a "brane-universe" scenario where the visible and hidden sectors are localized on spatially separated 3-branes coupled only by supergravity, with supersymmetry breaking…