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We examine how generalised geometries can be associated with a labelled Dynkin diagram built around a gravity line. We present a series of new generalised geometries based on the groups $\mathit{Spin}(d,d)\times\mathbb{R}^+$ for which the…
We introduce a spherical variant of Milnor's classifying construction for diffeological groups, based on quadratic normalization of barycentric coordinates. This construction gives rise to a contractible diffeological space endowed with…
A topological theory for euclidean gravity in eight dimensions is built by enforcing octonionic self-duality conditions on the spin connection. The eight-dimensional manifold must be of a special type, with G_2 or Spin(7) holonomy. The…
On a smooth manifold M, generalized complex (generalized paracomplex) structures provide a notion of interpolation between complex (paracomplex) and symplectic structures on M. Given a complex manifold (M,j), we define six families of…
We study the decomposition of 4d $\mathcal{N}=1$ gauge theories with Lie algebras of type $\mathfrak{su}(N)$, $\mathfrak{so}(2N)$, and $\mathfrak{e}_{6}$, realized via M-theory geometric engineering. These theories, together with their…
The R^4-type corrections to ten and eleven dimensional supergravity required by string and M-theory imply corrections to supersymmetric supergravity compactifications on manifolds of special holonomy, which deform the metric away from the…
We develop methods to study the singularities of certain $G_2$ cones related to toric hyperkahler spaces and Einstein selfdual orbifolds. This allows us to determine the low energy gauge groups of chiral N=1 compactifications of M-theory on…
We investigate compactifications of type II and M-theory down to $AdS_5$ with generic fluxes that preserve eight supercharges, in the framework of Exceptional Generalized Geometry. The geometric data and gauge fields on the internal…
We extend the refined G-structure classification of supersymmetric solutions of eleven dimensional supergravity. We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of an arbitrary number of Killing spinors whose common isotropy…
We describe a mechanism for using discrete symmetries to solve the doublet-triplet splitting problem of four-dimensional supersymmetric GUT's. We present two versions of the mechanism, one via ``deconstruction,'' and one in terms of…
By fibering the duality between the $E_{8}\times E_{8}$ heterotic string on $T^{3}$ and M-theory on K3, we study heterotic duals of M-theory compactified on $G_{2}$ orbifolds of the form $T^{7}/\mathbb{Z}_{2}^{3}$. While the heterotic…
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…
This diploma thesis has three major objectives. Firstly, we give an elementary introduction to M-theory compactifications, which are obtained from an analysis of its low-energy effective theory, eleven-dimensional supergravity. In…
We reformulate the Hamiltonian form of bosonic eleven dimensional supergravity in terms of an object that unifies the three-form and the metric. For the case of four spatial dimensions, the duality group is manifest and the metric and…
In this note we explore the possible marginal deformations of general (0,2) non-linear sigma-models, which arise as descriptions of the weakly-coupled (large radius) limits of four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}= 1$ compactifications of the…
The heterotic $E_8\times E_8$ string compactified on an orbifold $T^4/\IZ_N$ has gauge group $G\times G'$ with (massless) states in its twisted sectors which are charged under both gauge group factors. In the dual M-theory on…
The dualised formulation of the symmetric space sigma model is peformed for a general scalar coset G/K where G is a maximally non-compact group and K is it's maximal compact subgroup.By using the twisted self-duality condition the general…
We analyse the backreacted geometry corresponding to a stack of M5-branes wrapped on a spindle, with a view towards precision tests of the dual $\mathcal{N} = 1$ superconformal field theory. We carefully study the singular loci of the…
We study a particular class of supersymmetric M-theory eight-dimensional non-geometric compactification backgrounds to three-dimensional Minkowski space-time, proving that the global space of the non-geometric compactification is still a…
We discuss the topology of the symmetry groups appearing in compactified (super-)gravity, and discuss two applications. First, we demonstrate that for 3 dimensional sigma models on a symmetric space G/H with G non-compact and H the maximal…