Related papers: Exotic smooth R^4 and quantum matter
Talk given at the 26th Workshop: ``From Superstrings to Supergravity" Erice - Sicily, 5-12 December 1992: In this talk we discuss string consistency requirements on four dimensional string models, namely the cancellation of target space…
Supersymmetric domain-wall solutions of maximal gauged supergravity are classified in 4, 5 and 7 dimensions in the presence of non-trivial scalar fields taking values in the coset SL(N, R)/SO(N) for N=8, 6 and 5 respectively. We use an…
Some shortcomings in regard to our lack of conceptual understanding of string theory are displayed and prescription to untangle them is proposed. String theory should be a fundamental dynamics of four dimensional symmetric space-times.…
In these lecture notes we first assemble the basic ingredients of supersymmetric gauge theories (particularly N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory), supergravity, and superstring theory. Brane solutions are surveyed. The geometry and symmetries of…
In this set of five lectures we present a basic toolbox to discuss the dynamics of four dimensional supersymmetric quantum field theories. In particular we overview the program of geometrically engineering the four dimensional…
We construct the quartic version of generalized quasi-topological gravity, which was recently constructed to cubic order in arXiv: 1703.01631. This class of theories includes Lovelock gravity and a known form of quartic quasi-topological…
We show the existence of solitonic solutions of five-dimensional supergravity, which can be interpreted as global cosmic strings in our universe. They possess the same mathematical structure as the stringy cosmic strings studied by Greene,…
We derive the subleading soft graviton theorem in a generic quantum theory of gravity for arbitrary number of soft external gravitons and arbitrary number of finite energy external states carrying arbitrary mass and spin. Our results are…
This text is a review of aspects of supergravity theories that are relevant in superstring cosmology. In particular, it considers the possibilities and restrictions for `uplifting terms', i.e. methods to produce de Sitter vacua. We…
Asymptotic symmetries of theories with gravity in d=2m+2 spacetime dimensions are reconsidered for m>1 in light of recent results concerning d=4 BMS symmetries. Weinberg's soft graviton theorem in 2m+2 dimensions is re-expressed as a Ward…
Beginning with a review of the arguments leading to the so-called c=1 barrier in the continuum formulation of noncritical string theory, the pathology is then exhibited in a discretized version of the theory, formulated through dynamical…
Many extensions of the standard model, especially grand unified theories and superstring models, predict the existence of additional Z' bosons and associated exotic chiral supermultiplets. It has recently been argued that for classes of…
Recently, a topological field theory of membrane-matter coupled to BF theory in arbitrary spacetime dimensions was proposed [1]. In this paper, we discuss various aspects of the four-dimensional theory. Firstly, we study classical solutions…
We present the "classical" Nielsen-Olesen vortex solution on a warped five dimensional space time, where we solved the effective four-dimensional equations from the five-dimensional equations together with the junction and boundary…
We study N=2(4) superstring backgrounds which are four-dimensional non-\Kahlerian with non-trivial dilaton and torsion fields. In particular we consider the case that the backgrounds possess at least one $U(1)$ isometry and are…
Higher spin fields in four dimensions, and more generally conformal fields in arbitrary dimensions, can be described by spinning particle models with a gauged SO(N) extended supergravity on the worldline. We consider here the one-loop…
Generalized complex geometry is an example of a powerful formalism to attempt the construction of a language adequate to string theory. With the remarkable property of unifying symplectic and complex manifolds as special cases of a broader…
In the context of 4d effective gravity theories with 8 supersymmetries, we propose to unify, strenghten, and refine the several swampland conjectures into a single statement: the structural criterion, modelled on the structure theorem in…
We review exceptional field theories as the duality-covariant reformulation of maximal supergravity theories in ten and eleven dimensions, that make the underlying exceptional symmetries explicit. Beyond their structural role in unifying…
On the basis of an area-preserving symmetry in the phase space of a one-dimensional matrix model - believed to describe two-dimensional string theory in a black-hole background which also allows for space-time foam - we give a geometric…