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We review the theory and phenomenology of effective supergravity theories based on orbifold compactifications of the weakly-coupled heterotic string. In particular, we consider theories in which the four-dimensional theory displays target…
We use local mirror symmetry in type IIA string compactifications on Calabi-Yau n+1 folds $X_{n+1}$ to construct vector bundles on (possibly singular) elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau n-folds Z_n. The interpretation of these data as valid…
This paper analyses type II string theories in backgrounds which admit an SU(3) x SU(3) structure. Such backgrounds are designed to linearly realize eight out of the original 32 supercharges and as a consequence the low-energy effective…
In this thesis the recently developed duality covariant approach to string and M-theory is investigated. In this formalism the U-duality symmetry of M-theory or T-duality symmetry of Type II string theory becomes manifest upon extending…
In this thesis, we explore two approaches to string phenomenology. In the first half of the work, we investigate M-theory compactifications on spaces with co-dimension four, orbifold singularities. We construct M-theory on C^2/Z_N by…
It has recently been conjectured that the type IIA string theory compactified on K3 and the heterotic string theory compactified on a four dimensional torus describe identical string theories. The fundamental heterotic string can be…
We study perturbative compactifications of Type II string theory that rely on a fibration structure of the extra dimensions a la SYZ. Non-geometric spaces are obtained by using T-dualities as monodromies. These vacua generically preserve…
In this paper we study the reduction of heterotic string theory on SU(2)-structure backgrounds. We compute the bosonic low-energy gauged N=2 supergravity specified by the Killing vectors corresponding to the gauged isometries. We check that…
In this paper we analyze the structure of supersymmetric vacua in compactifications of the heterotic string on certain manifolds with SU(3) structure. We first study the effective theories obtained from compactifications on half-flat…
We show how enhanced gauge symmetry in type II string theory compactified on a Calabi--Yau threefold arises from singularities in the geometry of the target space. When the target space of the type IIA string acquires a genus $g$ curve $C$…
Using a recently proposed group-theoretical approach, we explore novel gaugings of maximal supergravity in four dimensions with gauge group embeddings that can be generated by fluxes of IIB string theory. The corresponding potentials are…
We study $T^2$ compactification of massive type IIA supergravity in presence of possible Ramond-Ramond (RR) background fluxes. The resulting theory in D=8 is shown to possess full $SL(2,R)\times SL(2,R)$ T-duality symmetry similar to the…
Heterotic string theory compactified on a K3 surface times T^2 is believed to be equivalent to type II string theory on a suitable Calabi-Yau threefold. In particular, it must share the same hypermultiplet moduli space. Building on the…
We study supersymmetric compactifications of type II strings on eightfolds to two dimensions. It is demonstrated that the type IIB string on an eightfold is free of gravitational anomalies. T-duality requires that this theory when further…
Supergravity provides the effective field theories for string compactifications. The deformation of the maximal supergravities by non-abelian gauge interactions is only possible for a restricted class of charges. Generically these…
Type II string theory compactified on a Calabi-Yau manifold, with a singularity modeled by a hypersurface in an orbifold, is considered. In the limit of vanishing string coupling, one expects a non gravitational theory concentrated at the…
We study the vacuum structure of compactifications of type II string theories on orientifolds with SU(3)xSU(3) structure. We argue that generalised geometry enables us to treat these non-geometric compactifications using a supergravity…
We investigate the connections between four-dimensional, N=2 M-theory vacua constructed as orbifolds of type II, heterotic, and type I strings. All these models have the same massless spectrum, which contains an equal number of vector…
We analyze $N=2,1,0$ vacua of type IIB string theory on $K3\times T^2/Z_2$ in presence of three-form fluxes from a four dimensional supergravity viewpoint. The quaternionic geometry of the $K3$ moduli space together with the special…
String compactifications with T-duality twists are revisited and the gauge algebra of the dimensionally reduced theories calculated. These reductions can be viewed as string theory on T-fold backgrounds, and can be formulated in a `doubled…