Related papers: GLSM's, gerbes, and Kuznetsov's homological projec…

We analyze in detail the relation between an exactly marginal deformation of N=4 SYM - the Leigh-Strassler or ``beta-deformation'' - and its string theory dual (recently constructed in hep-th/0502086) by comparing energies of semiclassical…

In this paper we study CFT's associated to gerbes. These theories suffer from a lack of cluster decomposition, but this problem can be resolved: the CFT's are the same as CFT's for disconnected targets. Such theories also lack cluster…

We explore various aspects of 2-form topological gauge theories in (3+1)d. These theories can be constructed as sigma models with target space the second classifying space $B^2G$ of the symmetry group $G$, and they are classified by…

Aspects of duality and mirror symmetry in string theory are discussed. We emphasize, through examples, the importance of loop spaces for a deeper understanding of the geometrical origin of dualities in string theory. Moreover we show that…

In this second article, we prove that any desingularization in the Gromov-Hausdorff sense of an Einstein orbifold is the result of a gluing-perturbation procedure that we develop. This builds on our first paper where we proved that a…

We derive a concrete closed string dual to any interacting Hermitian one-matrix model, away from the double-scaling limit. Matrix and string correlators manifestly agree, to all orders in the genus expansion and all orders in the 't Hooft…

We construct intersecting D-brane configurations that encode the gauge groups and field content of dual N=4 supersymmetric gauge theories in three dimensions. The duality which exchanges the Coulomb and Higgs branches and the…

This is the second in a series of papers discussing in the framework of gerbe theory canonical and geometric aspects of the 2d nonlinear sigma model in the presence of conformal defects in the worldsheet. Employing the formal tools worked…

A recent attempt to extend the geometric Langlands duality to affine Kac-Moody groups, has led Braverman and Finkelberg [arXiv:0711.2083] to conjecture a mathematical relation between the intersection cohomology of the moduli space of…

We construct equivariant, string and leading order characteristic classes and Chern-Simons classes for certain infinite rank bundles associated to fibrations occurring in loop spaces, Gromov-Witten theory and gauge theory. Results include a…

We review extensions by integer spin simple currents in two-dimensional conformal field theories and their applications in string theory. In particular, we study the problem of resolving the fixed points of a simple current and apply the…

We study the coupling of the closed string to the open string in the topological B-model. These couplings can be viewed as gauge invariant observables in the open string field theory, or as deformations of the differential graded algebra…

We study six dimensional supergravity theories with superconformal sectors (SCFTs). Instances of such theories can be engineered using type IIB strings, or more generally F-Theory, which translates field theoretic constraints to geometry.…

String propagation on a curved background defines an embedding problem of surfaces in differential geometry. Using this, we show that in a wide class of backgrounds the classical dynamics of the physical degrees of freedom of the string…

In this paper, we apply the methods developed in recent work for constructing A-twisted (2,2) Landau-Ginzburg models to analogous (0,2) models. In particular, we study (0,2) Landau-Ginzburg models on topologically non-trivial spaces away…

We present some mathematical aspects of Landau-Ginzburg string vacua in terms of toric geometry. The one-to-one correspondence between toric divisors and some of (-1,1) states in Landau-Ginzburg model is presented for superpotentials of…

We present a string theory that reproduces the large-$N$ expansion of two dimensional Yang-Mills gauge theory on arbitrary surfaces. First, a new class of topological sigma models is introduced, with path integrals localized to the moduli…

In this note we expose some surprising connections between string theory and statistical inference. We consider a large collective of agents sweeping out a family of nearby statistical models for an M-dimensional manifold of statistical…

We argue that two four-dimensional strongly coupled superconformal field theories, on the Higgs branch in certain large N limits, become respectively (2,0) theory and (1,1) little string theory in six dimensions. We identify the spectrum of…

We study a class of ${\cal N}=(1,0)$ little string theories obtained from orbifolds of M-brane configurations. These are realised in two different ways that are dual to each other: either as $M$ parallel M5-branes probing a transverse…