Related papers: Worldsheet instantons and coupling selection rules…
We present a conformal field theory calculation of four-point and three-point correlation functions for the bosonic twist fields arising at the intersections of D-branes wrapping (supersymmetric) homology cycles of Type II orientifold…
By employing the symmetries of the underlying conformal field theory, the tree-level K\"ahler potentials for untwisted moduli of the heterotic string compactifications on orbifolds with continuous Wilson lines are derived. These symmetries…
We classify potential cosmic strings according to the topological charge measurable outside the string core. We conjecture that in string theory it is this charge that governs the stability of long strings. This would imply that the SO(32)…
This book provides an introduction to string field theory (SFT). String theory is usually formulated in the worldsheet formalism, which describes a single string (first-quantization). While this approach is intuitive and could be pushed far…
In this paper we study extremal transitions between heterotic string compactifications, i.e., transitions between pairs (M,V) where M is a Calabi-Yau manifold and V a gauge bundle. Bundle transitions are described using language recently…
We derive an approximate analytic relation between the number of consistent heterotic Calabi-Yau compactifications of string theory with the exact charged matter content of the standard model of particle physics and the topological data of…
We compute the corrections to heterotic-string backgrounds with (2,0) world-sheet supersymmetry, up to two loops in sigma-model perturbation theory. We investigate the conditions for these backgrounds to preserve spacetime supersymmetry and…
We complete the proof of unitarity of (compactified) heterotic and type II string field theories by showing that in the cut diagrams only physical states appear in the sum over intermediate states. This analysis takes into account the…
We explain how nonperturbative effects can be systematically included when constructing an effective field theory. We concentrate in particular on the matching calculation, by which a low energy theory without a heavy particle degree of…
Fractional superstrings experience new types of ``internal projections'' which alter or deform their underlying worldsheet conformal field theories. In this talk I summarize some recent results concerning both the worldsheet theory which…
We consider the possibility that the unification of the electroweak interactions and the strong force arises from string theory, at energies significantly lower than the string scale. As a tool, an effective grand unified field theory in…
It is known that string theory compactifications leading to low energy effective theories with different chiral matter content ({\it e.g.} different numbers of standard model generations) are connected through phase transitions, described…
In this thesis we study string compactifications on manifolds equipped with a $G$-structure, placing a special emphasis on the interplay between geometry and physics. We follow two complementary approaches. In the first part of the thesis…
We provide a detailed study of the phenomenology of orbifold compactifications of the heterotic string within the context of supergravity effective theories. Our investigation focuses on those models where the soft Lagrangian is dominated…
A detailed understanding of instanton effects for half-BPS couplings is pursued in theories with 16 supersymmetries. In particular, we investigate the duality between heterotic string on $T^4$ and type IIA on $K_3$ at the $T^4/Z_2$ orbifold…
Effective theories with the matter content of the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model below the string scale M_string predict a wrong value for the weak--mixing angle sin^2\theta_W and strong coupling constant \alpha_S at the scale M_Z.…
We search for $N=2$, $d=4$ theories which can be realized both as heterotic string compactifications on $K_{3}\times T^{2}$ and as type II string compactifications on Calabi-Yau threefolds. In such cases, the exact non-perturbative…
We present a general algorithm which permits to construct solutions in string cosmology for heterotic and type-IIB superstrings in four dimensions. Using a chain of transformations applied in sequence: conformal, T-duality and SL(2,R)…
In this short review, we outline three sets of developments in understanding heterotic string compactifications. First, we outline recent progress in heterotic analogues of quantum cohomology computations. Second, we discuss a potential…
These lectures give an introduction to the methods of conformal field theory as applied to deriving certain results in two-dimensional critical percolation: namely the probability that there exists at least one cluster connecting two…