Related papers: M-theory and Type IIB from a Duality Manifest Acti…
An introductory survey of some of the developments that have taken place in superstring theory in the past few years is presented. The main focus is on three particular dualities. The first one is the appearance of an 11th dimension in the…
We reduce the dual version of $D=10$, $N=1$ supergravity coupled to $n$ vector fields to four dimensions, and derive the $SL(2,R)\times O(6,6+n)$ transformations which leave the equations of motion invariant. For $n=0$ $SL(2,R)$ is also a…
In the prototypical AdS$_5$/CFT$_4$ correspondence, the free energy of $\mathcal{N}=4$ SU$(N)$ super Yang-Mills theory is commonly reproduced from the Euclidean on-shell action of five-dimensional gauged supergravity -- a consistent…
The low-energy effective action of type-I superstring theory in ten dimensions is obtained performing a truncation of type-IIB supergravity in a background where D9-branes are present. The open sector corresponds to the first order in the…
We consider a low energy effective theory of $p$-branes in a $D$-dimensional spacetime, and impose two conditions: 1) the theory is scale invariant, and 2) the electric-magnetic dual $(D-p-4)$-branes exist and they obey the same type of…
We find a dual gravity theory to pure confining N=1 supersymmetric SU(N) gauge theory in four dimensions which has the correct gauge coupling running in addition to reproducing the appropriate pattern of chiral symmetry breaking. It is…
Compactification of M theory in the presence of G-fluxes yields N=2 five-dimensional gauged supergravity with a potential that lifts all supersymmetric vacua. We derive the effective superpotential directly from the Kaluza-Klein reduction…
The quest for unification of particles and fields and for reconciliation of Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity has led us to gauge theories, string theories, supersymmetry and higher-extended objects: membranes... Our spacetime is…
We present a version of ten-dimensional IIA supergravity containing a 9-form potential for which the field equations are equivalent to those of the standard, massless, IIA theory for vanishing 10-form field strength, $F_{10}$, and to those…
We consider two-dimensional supergravity theories with four supercharges constructed from compactification of Type II string theory on a generic Calabi-Yau four-fold. In Type IIA and Type IIB cases, respectively, new superspace formulations…
We study a decoupling limit of M-theory where the three-form gauge potential becomes critical. This limit leads to nonrelativistic M-theory coupled to a non-Lorentzian spacetime geometry. Nonrelativistic M-theory is U-dual to M-theory in…
We construct the 12-dimensional exceptional field theory associated to the group $\mathrm{SL}(2) \times \mathbb{R}^+$ . Demanding the closure of the algebra of local symmetries leads to a constraint, known as the section condition, that…
This is an introductory review on the eleven-dimensional description of the BPS bound states of type II superstring theories, and on the role of supermembranes in M-theory. The first part describes classical solutions of 11d supergravity…
We examine the question of the supersymmetric completion of the $R^4$ term in type IIB supergravity by using superfield methods. We show that while there is an obstruction to constructing the full action, a subset of the terms in the action…
We derive the five-dimensional effective action of strongly coupled heterotic string theory for the complete (1,1) sector of the theory by performing a reduction, on a Calabi-Yau three-fold, of M-theory on S^1/Z_2. A crucial ingredient for…
We construct zero-temperature solutions of supergravity theories in five and four dimensions which interpolate between two copies of anti-de Sitter space, one of which preserves an abelian gauge symmetry while the other breaks it. These…
We present the details of the recently constructed $E_{6(6)}$ covariant extension of 11-dimensional supergravity. This theory requires a 5+27 dimensional spacetime in which the `internal' coordinates transform in the $\bar{\bf 27}$ of…
We provide a consistent N=4 Kaluza-Klein truncation of type IIB supergravity on general 5-dimensional squashed Sasaki-Einstein manifolds. Our reduction ansatz keeps all and only the supergravity modes dual to the universal gauge sector of…
We study timelike U-dualities acting in three and four directions of 11-dimensional supergravity, which form the groups $SL(2)\times SL(3)$ and SL(5). Using generalised geometry, we find that timelike U-dualities, despite previous…
We construct a new family of $\text{AdS}_2\times S^3\times S^2$ solutions to Type IIB supergravity arising as near-horizon geometries of D1-F1-D3-D5-NS5-D7 brane intersections preserving 4 supersymmetries. We show that a subclass of these…