Related papers: Symmetries and Strings in Field Theory and Gravity
We place bounds on the order of enhanced discrete gauge symmetries that act on massless fields and thus arise at subloci of the moduli space in supergravity theories. We focus on supersymmetric theories with 8 or more supercharges which in…
In discussing the construction of a consistent theory of quantum gravity unified with the gauge interactions we are naturally led to a string theory. We review its properties and the five consistent supersymmetric string theories in ten…
In this thesis we investigate the microphysics of cosmic strings in non-minimal quantum field theories. In particular we consider theories in which fermion fields couple to the strings, and those with larger symmetry groups, such as grand…
It is well-known that if we gauge a $\mathbb{Z}_n$ symmetry in two dimensions, a dual $\mathbb{Z}_n$ symmetry appears, such that re-gauging this dual $\mathbb{Z}_n$ symmetry leads back to the original theory. We describe how this can be…
We discuss string theory relations between gravity and gauge theory tree amplitudes. Together with $D$-dimensional unitarity, these relations can be used to perturbatively quantize gravity theories, i.e. they contain the necessary…
In this thesis, two aspects of string theory are discussed, tensionless strings and supersymmetric sigma models. The equivalent to a massless particle in string theory is a tensionless string. Even almost 30 years after it was first…
Gauge symmetries emerge from a redundant description of the effective action for light degrees of freedom after the decoupling of heavy modes. This redundant description avoids the use of explicit constraints in configuration space. For…
We draw attention to a class of generalized global symmetries, which we call "Chern-Weil global symmetries," that arise ubiquitously in gauge theories. The Noether currents of these Chern-Weil global symmetries are given by wedge products…
Gauge symmetries indicate redundancies in the description of the relevant degrees of freedom of a given field theory and restrict the nature of observable quantities. One of the problems faced by emergent theories of relativistic fields is…
We study compactified pure gauge/gravitational theories with gauge-fixing terms and show that these theories possess quantum mechanical SUSY-like symmetries between unphysical degrees of freedom. These residual symmetries are global…
We discuss some aspects of the relation between dualities and gauge symmetries. Both of these ideas are of course multi-faceted, and we confine ourselves to making two points. Both points are about dualities in string theory, and both have…
The loop representation of quantum gravity has many formal resemblances to a background-free string theory. In fact, its origins lie in attempts to treat the string theory of hadrons as an approximation to QCD, in which the strings…
Novel Lagrangians are discussed in which (non-abelian) electric and magnetic gauge fields appear on a par. To ensure that these Lagrangians describe the correct number of degrees of freedom, tensor gauge fields are included with…
We study string theory in supersymmetric time-dependent backgrounds. In the framework of general relativity, supersymmetry for spacetimes without flux implies the existence of a covariantly constant null vector, and a relatively simple form…
We propose a new point of view to gauge theories based on taking the action of symmetry transformations directly on the coordinates of space. Via this approach the gauge fields are not introduced at the first step, and they can be…
Motivated by recent discussions of fractons, we explore nonrelativistic field theories with a continuous global symmetry, whose charge is a spatial vector. We present several such symmetries and demonstrate them in concrete examples. They…
We study a cosmic string solution of an N=1-supersymmetric version of the Cremmer-Scherk-Kalb-Ramond (CSKR) Lagrangian coupled to a vector superfield by means of a topological mass term. The 2-form gauge potential is proposed to couple…
This review talk focusses on some of the interesting developments in the area of superstring compactification that have occurred in the last couple of years. These include the discovery that ``mirror symmetric" pairs of Calabi--Yau spaces,…
We review the usual account of the phenomena of spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB), pointing out the common misunderstandings surrounding the issue, in particular within the context of quantum field theory. In fact, the common explanations…
I describe our understanding of physics near the planck length, in particular the great progress of the last four years in string theory. Superstring theory, and a recent extension called M theory, are leading candidates for a quantum…