Related papers: K3 surfaces, modular forms, and non-geometric hete…

The heterotic string compactified on an (n-1)-dimensional elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau Z-->B is conjectured to be dual to F-theory compactified on an n-dimensional Calabi-Yau X-->B, fibered over the same base with elliptic K3 fibers. In…

In this note we propose a generalization of heterotic/F-theory duality. We introduce a set of non-compact building blocks which we glue together to reach compact examples of generalized duality pairs. The F-theory building blocks consist of…

We study the geometric engineering of supersymmetric quantum field theories (QFT), with non simply laced gauge groups, obtained from superstring and F-theory compactifications on local Calabi-Yau manifolds. First we review the main lines of…

In this paper we study the moduli spaces of nodal sextic curves. We realize each irreducible component of the GIT space of sextic curves with given number of nodes as an open subspace of type IV arithmetic quotients. We then focus on the…

Using mirror pairs (M_3, W_3) in type II superstring compactifications on Calabi-Yau threefolds, we study, geometrically, F-theory duals of M-theory on seven manifolds with G_2 holonomy. We first develop a way for getting Landau Ginzburg…

We construct geometric compactifications of the moduli space $F_{2d}$ of polarized K3 surfaces, in any degree $2d$. Our construction is via KSBA theory, by considering canonical choices of divisor $R\in |nL|$ on each polarized K3 surface…

We prove a conjecture of Odaka--Oshima, which says that there is an algebraic description of the Gromov--Hausdorff compactification of all unit-diameter hyperk\"ahler metrics on K3 surfaces. As a corollary, we obtain a classification of the…

In previous work, we have introduced a program aimed at studying the birational geometry of locally symmetric varieties of Type IV associated to moduli of certain projective varieties of K3 type. In particular, a concrete goal of our…

We study the moduli space of triples $(C, L_1, L_2)$ consisting of quartic curves $C$ and lines $L_1$ and $L_2$. Specifically, we construct and compactify the moduli space in two ways: via geometric invariant theory (GIT) and by using the…

We clarify the relation between six-dimensional Abelian orbifold compactifications of the heterotic string and smooth heterotic K3 compactifications with line bundles for both SO(32) and E_8 x E_8 gauge groups. The T^4/Z_N cases for N=2,3,4…

We consider compactifications of the heterotic string on $K3 \times T2$ so that the resulting theory in $d = 4$ space-time dimensions has $N = 2$ supersymmetry. The gravitational and gauge coupling constants of the low-energy effective…

We study toroidal compactification of Matrix theory, using ideas and results of non-commutative geometry. We generalize this to compactification on the noncommutative torus, explain the classification of these backgrounds, and argue that…

Compactifications of the heterotic string on T^d are the simplest, yet rich enough playgrounds to uncover swampland ideas: the U(1)^{d+16} left-moving gauge symmetry gets enhanced at special points in moduli space only to certain groups. We…

We show that the F-theory dual of the heterotic string with unbroken Spin(32)/Z_2 symmetry in eight dimensions can be described in terms of the same polyhedron that can also encode unbroken E_8\times E_8 symmetry. By considering particular…

We study the homotopy type of the harmonic compactification of the moduli space of a 2-cobordism S with one outgoing boundary component, or equivalently of the space of Sullivan diagrams of type S on one circle. Our results are of two…

This is a survey article about Siegel modular varieties over the complex numbers. It is written mostly from the point of view of moduli of abelian varieties, especially surfaces. We cover compactification of Siegel modular varieties;…

We revisit the duality between heterotic string theory compactified on K3 x T^2 and type IIA compactified on a Calabi-Yau threefold X in the hypermultiplet sector. We derive an explicit map between the field variables of the respective…

We survey crystalline cohomology, crystals, and formal group laws with an emphasis on geometry. We apply these concepts to K3 surfaces, and especially to supersingular K3 surfaces. In particular, we discuss stratifications of the moduli…

We consider flux compactifications of type IIB string theory and F-theory in which the respective superpotentials at large complex structure are dominated by cubic or quartic terms in the complex structure moduli. In this limit, the…

We demonstrate that type II string theory compactified on a singular Calabi-Yau manifold is related to $c=1$ string theory compactified at the self-dual radius. We establish this result in two ways. First we show that complex structure…