Related papers: What is the Simplest Gauge-String Duality?
In these lecture proceedings, we describe some of the fundamental mathematical concepts that underlie supersymmetric string theory and field theory, and their role in describing and testing dualities. In particular, we provide a pedagogical…
Berenstein, Maldacena, and Nastase have proposed, as a limit of the strong form of the AdS/CFT correspondence, that string theory in a particular plane wave background is dual to a certain subset of operators in the N=4 super-Yang-Mills…
In this paper, we explicitly construct string theory backgrounds that realise the so-called $\mathcal N=2^\star$ gauge theory. We prove the consistency of our models by calculating their partition function and obtaining the correct gauge…
T-Duality invariant worldsheet string actions, recently written down by Schwarz and Sen, are coupled to the worldsheet gauge fields. It is shown that the integration of the dual coordinates gives the conventional, vector, axial and chiral,…
We study duals to field theories in two dimensions with N=(4,4) SUSY. The string backgrounds reproduce certain non-perturbative aspects of the dual field theory with a large number of colors N_c and a tunable number of flavors N_f.…
Compactification of 6d N=(2,0) theory of type G on a punctured Riemann surface has been effectively used to understand S-dualities of 4d N=2 theories. We can further introduce branch cuts on the Riemann surface across which the worldvolume…
In this paper we make further refinements to the duality proposed between N=1 SQCD and certain string (supergravity plus branes) backgrounds, working in the regime of comparable large number of colors and flavors. Using the string theory…
Target space duality is one of the most profound properties of string theory. However it customarily requires that the background fields satisfy certain invariance conditions in order to perform it consistently; for instance the vector…
We show the existence of a global anomaly in the one-loop graphs of N=2 string theory, defined by sewing tree amplitudes, unless spacetime supersymmetry is imposed. The anomaly is responsible for the non-vanishing maximally helicity…
We discuss the equivalence between a string theory and the two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory with SU(N) gauge group for finite N. We find a sector which can be interpreted as a sum of covering maps from closed string world-sheets to the…
Gauge/gravity dualities are investigated from the worldsheet point of view. In [arXiv:0706.1163] and [arXiv:0708.2463], a duality between 4d SYM and supergravity on AdS_5xS^5 has been partly explained by using an anisotropic scale…
We investigate the field theory of strings having as a target space an arbitrary discrete one-dimensional manifold. The existence of the continuum limit is guaranteed if the target space is a Dynkin diagram of a simply laced Lie algebra or…
Solving by a canonical string theory, of closed strings for the glueballs and open strings for the mesons, the 't Hooft large-$N$ expansion of QCD is a long-standing problem that resisted all the attempts despite the advent of the…
In this dissertation, we discuss how our understanding of the large-N spectrum of AdS/CFT has been deepened by integrability-based approaches. We begin with a comprehensive review of the integrability of the gauge theory spin-chain and that…
A worldsheet realization of the refined topological string is proposed in terms of physical string amplitudes that compute generalized N=2 F-terms of the form F_{g,n} W^{2g}Y^{2n} in the effective supergravity action. These terms involve…
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…
By exploiting the boundary state formalism we obtain the string correlator between two internal points on the one loop open string world-sheet in the presence of a constant background $B$-field. From this derivation it is clear that there…
We study a configuration of a parallel F- (fundamental) and D- string in IIB string theory by considering its T-dual configuration in the matrix model description of M-theory. We show that certain non-perturbative features of string theory…
We undertake a systematic analysis of non-geometric backgrounds in string theory by seeking stringy liftings of a class of gauged supergravity theories. In addition to conventional flux compactifications and non-geometric T-folds with…
We show that little string theory on S^5 can be obtained as double-scaling limits of the maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories on RxS^2 and RxS^3/Z_k. By matching the gauge theory parameters with those in the gravity duals found by…