Related papers: Phenomenological survey of free fermionic heteroti…
We discuss Z_2 \times Z_2 orientifolds where the orbifold twists are accompanied by shifts on momentum or winding lattice states. The models contain variable numbers of D5 branes, whose massless (and, at times, even massive) modes have…
An exact conformal model representing a constant magnetic field background in heterotic string theory is explicitly solved in terms of free creation/annihilation operators. The spectrum of physical states is examined for different possible…
Topological phases of matter remain a focus of interest due to their unique properties -- fractionalisation, ground state degeneracy, and exotic excitations. While some of these properties can occur in systems of free fermions, their…
Over the past three decades, considerable effort has been devoted to studying the rich and diverse phenomenologies of heterotic strings exhibiting spacetime supersymmetry. Unfortunately, during this same period, there has been relatively…
I discuss the problem of generation mass hierarchy in the context of realistic superstring models which are constructed in the free fermionic formulation. These models correspond to models which are compactified on $Z_2\times Z_2$ orbifold.…
We study branes and open strings in a large class of orbifolds of a curved background using microscopic techniques of boundary conformal field theory. In particular, we obtain factorizing operator product expansions of open string vertex…
The fermionic minimal models are a recently-introduced family of two-dimensional spin conformal field theories. We determine all of their conformal boundary states and potentially anomalous $\mathbb{Z}_2$ global symmetries. The latter task…
We construct topological B-model descriptions of \hat{c}=1 strings, and corresponding Dijkgraaf-Vafa type matrix models and quiver gauge theories.
The experimental data of the past decade suggests that the quantum gravity vacuum should possess two key ingredients. The existence of three generations and their embedding in SO(10) representations. The Z2XZ2 orbifold of the heterotic…
These lectures from the 1995 Trieste Summer School in High Energy Physics and Cosmology give an elementary introduction to perturbative superstring theory, superstring phenomenology, and the fermionic construction of perturbative string…
In these notes we explain how the CFT description of random matrix models can be used to perform actual calculations. Our basic example is the hermitian matrix model, reformulated as a conformal invariant theory of free fermions. We give an…
An exact heterotic string theory on an AdS2xS2 background supported by an electromagnetic flux is found as a marginal deformation of an SL(2,R)xSU(2) WZW model. Based on a talk given at NATO Advanced Study Institute and EC Summer School on…
In this dissertation, we study various aspects of type IIB string theory compactified on freely acting orbifolds. We focus particularly on asymmetric orbifolds, which are examples of non-geometric string compactifications and constitute an…
We consider Z2, freely acting orbifolds of the type IIB string with 16 parallel D5-branes. When the string is compactified on T2 X T4 and the D5-branes are wrapped on T2, these systems possess N=2 supersymmetry, originating from the…
We investigate the low energy physics implications of a prototype quasi-realistic superstring model with an anomalous U(1). First, we present the techniques utilized to compute the mass spectrum and superpotential couplings at the string…
We explore a ``fertile patch'' of the heterotic landscape based on a Z_6-II orbifold with SO(10) and E_6 local GUT structures. We search for models allowing for the exact MSSM spectrum. Our result is that of order 100 out of a total 3\times…
The quest for the Standard Model among the huge number of string vacua is usually based on a set of phenomenological criteria related to the massless spectrum of string models. In this work we study criteria associated with interactions in…
We discuss solutions of the heterotic string theory which are analogous to bosonic and superstring backgrounds related to coset conformal field theories. A class of exact `left-right symmetric' solutions is obtained by supplementing the…
We study symmetries between untwisted and twisted strings on asymmetric orbifolds. We present a list of asymmetric orbifold models to possess intertwining currents which convert untwisted string states to twisted ones, and vice versa. We…
A review of orbifold geometry is given, followed by a review of the construction of four-dimensional heterotic string models by compactification on a six-dimensional Z_3 orbifold. Particular attention is given to the details of the…