Related papers: Lectures on F-theory compactifications and model b…
D3-branes are often a necessary ingredient in global compactifications of F-theory. In minimal realizations of flavor hierarchies in F-theory GUT models, suitable fluxes are turned on, which in turn attract D3-branes to the Yukawa points.…
We discuss a simple example of an F-theory compactification on a Calabi-Yau fourfold where background fluxes, together with nonperturbative effects from Euclidean D3 instantons and gauge dynamics on D7 branes, allow us to fix all closed and…
We consider splitting type phase transitions between Calabi-Yau fourfolds. These transitions generalize previously known types of conifold transitions between threefolds. Similar to conifold configurations the singular varieties mediating…
Borrowing ideas from elliptic complex geometry, we approach M-theory compactifications on real toric fibrations. Precisely, we explore real toric equations rather than complex ones exploited in F-theory and related dual models. These…
We study seven-brane SU(5) GUT models of string phenomenology which can be consistently analyzed in a purely local framework. The requirement that gravity can decouple constrains the form of four-dimensional physics as well as the geometry…
We provide a set of tools for analyzing the geometry of elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau manifolds, starting with a description of the total space rather than with a Weierstrass model or a specified type of fiber/base. Such an approach to…
We study the relation between phenomenological requirements and the topology of the surfaces that GUT 7-branes wrap in F-theory compactifications. In addition to the exotic matter free condition in the hypercharge flux scenario of…
In these lecture notes we will try to give an introduction to the use of the mathematics of fibre bundles in the understanding of some global aspects of gauge theories, such as monopoles and instantons. They are primarily aimed at beginning…
Seiberg-Witten theory can be embedded in F-theory using D3 branes probing an orientifold geometry. The non-perturbative corrections in the orientifold picture map directly to the instanton corrections in the corresponding gauge theory that…
We use F-theory to derive a general expression for the flux potential of type II compactifications with D7/D3 branes, including open string moduli and 2-form fluxes on the branes. Our main example is F-theory on K3 $\times$ K3 and its…
We consider topology changing transitions for M-theory compactifications on Calabi-Yau fourfolds with background G-flux. The local geometry of the transition is generically a genus g curve of conifold singularities, which engineers a 3d…
We examine the vacuum structure of 4D effective theories of moduli fields in spacetime compactifications with quantized background fluxes. Imposing the no-scale structure for the volume deformations, we numerically investigate the…
This is a write-up of a two hour talk at the Simons workshop. It contains an elementary introduction to F-theory and may be useful for people new to the subject.
We construct new F-theory vacua in 8-dimensions. They are coming by projective realizations of F-theory on $K_3$ surfaces admitting double covers onto $\P^2$, branched along a plane sextic curve, the so called double sextics. The new vacua…
We define for a topological group G and a family of subgroups F two versions for the classifying space for the family F, the G-CW-version E_F(G) and the numerable G-space version J_F(G). They agree if G is discrete, or if G is a Lie group…
We study orbifolds of two-dimensional topological field theories using defects. If the TFT arises as the twist of a superconformal field theory, we recover results on the Neveu-Schwarz and Ramond sectors of the orbifold theory as well as…
Finite Unified Theories (FUTs) are N=1 supersymmetric Grand Unified Theories that can be made all-loop finite, leading to a severe reduction of the free parameters. We review the investigation of FUTs based on SU(5) in the context of…
In this paper, we explore the string theory landscape obtained from type IIB and F-theory flux compactifications. We first give a comprehensive introduction to a number of mathematical finiteness theorems, indicate how they have been…
We present an explicit method for translating between the linear sigma model and the spectral cover description of SU(r) stable bundles over an elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau manifold. We use this to investigate the 4-dimensional duality…
We study the constraints of supersymmetry on flavour in recently proposed models of F-theory GUTs. We relate the topologically twisted theory to the canonical presentation of eight-dimensional super Yang-Mills and provide a dictionary…