Related papers: M-theory and Type IIA Flux Compactifications
We present a pedagogical overview of flux compactifications in string theory, from the basic ideas to the most recent developments. We concentrate on closed string fluxes in type II theories. We start by reviewing the supersymmetric flux…
We study M-theory compactification on ${\mathbb{T}^7/ \mathbb{Z}_2^3}$ in the presence of a seven-flux, metric fluxes and KK monopoles. The effective four-dimensional supergravity has seven chiral multiplets whose couplings are specified by…
After a short introduction to Matrix theory, we explain how can one generalize matrix models to describe toroidal compactifications of M-theory and the heterotic vacua with 16 supercharges. This allows us, for the first time in history, to…
We study a class of compactifications of M-theory to three dimensions that preserve N=2 supersymmetry and which have the defining feature that a probe space-time filling M2 brane feels a non-trivial potential on the internal manifold. Using…
We study dimensional reductions of M-theory/type II strings down to 6D in the presence of fluxes and spacetime filling branes and orientifold planes of different types. We classify all inequivalent orientifold projections giving rise to…
We consider compactifications of ${\cal M}$-theory to four-dimensional Minkowski space on seven-dimensional non-compact manifolds. These compactifications include a warp factor which is non-constant due to the presence of sources coming…
We attempt to find a rigorous formulation for the massive type IIA orientifold compactifications of string theory introduced in hep-th/0505160. An approximate double T-duality converts this background into IIA string theory on a twisted…
In this thesis we study compactifications of type II string theories and M-theory to four dimensions. We construct the four-dimensional N=2 supergravities that arise from compactifications of type IIA string theory and M-theory on manifolds…
We consider massive type IIA compactifications down to 4 dimensions in presence of O6 planes and D6 branes parallel to them, in order to preserve half-maximal supersymmetry in 4D. The dynamics of open strings living on the spacetime filling…
We consider Minkowski compactifications of M-theory on generic seven-dimensional manifolds. After analyzing the conditions on the four-form flux, we establish a set of relations between the components of the intrinsic torsion of the…
We describe a new class of supersymmetric string compactifications to 4d Minkowski space. These solutions involve type II strings propagating on (orientifolds of) non Calabi-Yau spaces in the presence of background NS and RR fluxes. The…
We review some recent developments in the study of M-theory compactifications via Matrix theory. In particular we highlight the appearance of IIA strings and their interactions, and explain the unifying role of the M-theory five-brane for…
One of the main goals of the field of string phenomenology is to describe the properties of our spacetime in low-energy effective models related to and consistent with string theory. It is known that our universe undergoes accelerated…
We derive a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for obtaining N=1 backgrounds of M-theory and type IIA strings in the presence of fluxes. Our metrics are warped products of four-dimensional Minkowski space-time with a curved internal…
Vacuum compactifications may suffer from instabilities under small perturbations or tunnel effects; both are difficult to analyze. In this paper we consider the issue from a higher-dimensional perspective. We first look at how stability…
We derive several no-go theorems in the context of massive type IIA string theory compactified to four dimensions in a way that, in the absence of fluxes, preserves N=1 supersymmetry. Our derivation is based on the dilaton, Kaehler and…
We give the general form of supersymmetric backgrounds with two real supercharges of M-theory and type IIA supergravity (with non-zero Romans mass in general) of the form $\mathbb{R}^{1,d} \times \M_8$, d=1,2, on eight-dimensional manifolds…
We present a comprehensive classification of supersymmetric vacua of M-theory compactification on seven-dimensional manifolds with general four-form fluxes. We analyze the cases where the resulting four-dimensional vacua have N = 1,2,3,4…
We investigate the effective worldvolume theories of branes in a background given by (the bosonic sector of) 10-dimensional massive IIA supergravity (``massive branes'') and their M-theoretic origin. In the case of the solitonic 5-brane of…
We discuss a novel strategy to construct 4D N=0 stable flux vacua of type II string theory, based on the existence of BPS bounds for probe D-branes in some of these backgrounds. In particular, we consider compactifications where D-branes…