Related papers: On orbifolds of M-Strings

We study orbifold compactifications of F-theory which lead to $N=1$ supersymmetry in 6 and 4 spacetime dimensions. These are dual to specific orientifolds of M-theory, and in many cases to orientifolds of type IIB string theory. The…

The past year has seen enormous progress in string theory. It has become clear that all of the different string theories are different limits of a single theory. Moreover, in certain limits, one obtains a new, eleven-dimensional structure…

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…

Just as parallel threebranes on a smooth manifold are related to string theory on $AdS_5\times {\bf S}^5$, parallel threebranes near a conical singularity are related to string theory on $AdS_5\times X_5$, for a suitable $X_5$. For the…

We study a gauge theory in a 5D warped space via the dimensional deconstruction that a higher dimensional gauge theory is constructed from a moose of 4D gauge groups. By the AdS/CFT correspondence, a 5D warped gauge theory is dual to a 4D…

We study pairs of 4d N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories that share the same vacuum moduli space and the same chiral field content, encoded by a common quiver, but differ in their superpotentials. These theories arise as worldvolume theories…

We study string theory propagating on R^6 times K3 by constructing orientifolds of Type IIB string theory compactified on the T^4/Z_N orbifold limits of the K3 surface. This generalises the Z_2 case studied previously. The orientifold…

One of the general strategies for realizing a wide class of interacting QFTs is via junctions and intersections of higher-dimensional bulk theories. In the context of string/M-theory, this includes many $D > 4$ superconformal field theories…

M-theory compactified on $G_2$-holonomy manifolds results in 4d $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric gauge theories coupled to gravity. In this paper we focus on the gauge sector of such compactifications by studying the Higgs bundle obtained…

We study supersymmetric vacua of the N=1 cascading SU(M+p)xSU(p) gauge theory with flavor - the theory on p D3-branes and M wrapped D5-branes at the tip of the conifold, and N_f flavor D7-branes wrapping a holomorphic four-cycle inside the…

String and membrane dynamics may be unified into a theory of 2+2 dimensional self-dual world-volumes living in a 10+2 dimensional target space. Some of the vacua of this M-theory are described by the N=(2,1) heterotic string, whose target…

This Ph.D. thesis investigates effective field and string theories in which supersymmetry is realized and broken in various ways. Chapter 1 addresses effective theories with nonlinearly realized supersymmetry, constructed using the…

We study the large $N$ expansion of twisted partition functions of 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ superconformal field theories arising from $N$ M5-branes wrapped on a hyperbolic 3-manifold, $M_3$. Via the 3d-3d correspondence, the partition functions…

We investigate the physics of the E-string theory and its compactifications as well as their applications to four-dimensional topology. In particular, we compute the partition function of the topologically twisted theory on $M_4\times T^2$,…

We present an action for a six-dimensional superconformal field theory containing a non-abelian tensor multiplet. All of the ingredients of this action have been available in the literature. We bring these pieces together by choosing the…

Three-dimensional N=2 superconformal field theories are constructed by compactifying M5-branes on three-manifolds. In the infrared the branes recombine, and the physics is captured by a single M5-brane on a branched cover of the original…

We consider four dimensional supersymmetric gauge field theories from brane configurations with the matter content given by semi-infinite D4 branes ending on both sides of NS branes. In M theory configuration, we discuss the splitting of…

We engineer a large new set of four-dimensional N=1 superconformal field theories by wrapping M5-branes on complex curves. We present new supersymmetric AdS_5 M-theory backgrounds which describe these fixed points at large N, and then…

The partition function of Ramond-Ramond p-form fields in Type IIA supergravity on a ten-manifold X contains subtle phase factors that are associated with T-duality, self-duality, and the relation of the RR fields to K-theory. The analogous…

We study the BMN correspondence between certain Penrose limits of type IIB superstrings on pp-wave orbifolds with $ADE$ geometries, and the set of four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ superconformal field theories constructed as quiver gauge…