Related papers: String theory on elliptic curve orientifolds and K…
We establish T-duality between NS5 branes stuck on an orientifold 8-plane in type I' and an orientifold construction in type IIB with D7 branes intersecting at angles. Two applications are discussed. For one we obtain new brane…
In this work we study the dynamics of branes on group manifolds G deep in the stringy regime. After giving a brief overview of the various branes that can be constructed within the boundary conformal field theory approach, we analyze in…
Brane tilings provide the most general framework in string and M-theory for matching toric Calabi-Yau singularities probed by branes with superconformal fixed points of quiver gauge theories. The brane tiling data consists of a bipartite…
We consider $\mathcal{N} = 2$ superconformal gauge theories in four dimensions. We explain how these quiver gauge theories arise as low-energy worldvolume theories of D3-branes on orientifolds. Then, we examine their associated chiral…
We study elliptic fibrations by analyzing suitable deformations of the fibrations and vanishing cycles. We introduce geometric string junctions and describe some of their properties. We show how the structure of the geometric string…
We discuss issues related to orientifolds and the brane realization for gauge theories with orthogonal and symplectic groups. We specifically discuss the case of theories with (hidden) global SO(2n) symmetry, from three to six dimensions.…
The various descent and duality relations among BPS and non-BPS D-branes are classified using topological K-theory. It is shown how the descent procedures for producing type-II D-branes from brane-antibrane bound states by tachyon…
We discuss some aspects of the physics of branes in the presence of orientifolds and the corresponding worldvolume gauge dynamics. We show that at strong coupling orientifolds sometimes turn into bound states of orientifolds and branes, and…
Elliptic curves play a natural and important role in elliptic cohomology. In earlier work with I. Kriz, thes elliptic curves were interpreted physically in two ways: as corresponding to the intersection of M2 and M5 in the context of (the…
Compactification of M- / string theory on manifolds with $G_2$ structure yields a wide variety of 4D and 3D physical theories. We analyze the local geometry of such compactifications as captured by a gauge theory obtained from a…
We apply some methods of homology and K-theory to special classes of branes wrapping homologically nontrivial cycles. We treat the classification of four-geometries in terms of compact stabilizers (by analogy with Thurston's classification…
The discrete tensorial charges carried by orientifold planes define n-gerbes in space-time. The simplest way to ensure a consistent string compactification is to require these gerbes to be flat. This results in expressions for the local…
An overview is presented of some cosmological aspects of string theory. Recent developments are emphasised, especially the attempts to derive inflation or alternatives to inflation from the dynamics of branes in string theory. Time…
In recent years, interesting curved-space extensions of nonrelativistic (NR) string theory have been very actively pursued, where the background has a structure that is a stringy generalization of Newton-Cartan geometry. Here we show that…
We obtain the spectrum of heterotic strings compactified on orbifolds, focusing on its algebraic structure. Affine Lie algebra provides its current algebra and representations. In particular the twisted spectrum and the Abelian charge are…
Orbifold compactification of heterotic E8 x E8 string theory is a source for promising grand unified model building. It can accommodate the successful aspects of grand unification while avoiding problems like doublet-triplet splitting in…
A classification of D-branes in Type IIB Op^- orientifolds and orbifolds in terms of Real and equivariant KK-groups is given. We classify D-branes intersecting orientifold planes from which are recovered some special limits as the spectrum…
We consider string theory on the Lorentzian Melvin geometry, which is obtained by analytically continuing the two-parameter Euclidean Melvin background. Because this model provides a solvable conformal field theory that describes…
The orbifold lines IIA/I_8 and IIB/$I_8 (-1)^{F_L} possess BPS discrete torsion variants which carry fundamental string (NSNS) charge. We show that these variants are actually classified by an integral electric field F from the twisted RR…
This thesis is concerned with the geometry of toroidal orbifolds and their applications in string theory. By resolving the orbifold singularities via blow-ups, one arrives at a smooth Calabi-Yau manifold. The systematic method to do so is…