Related papers: The eleven dimensional supergravity equations on e…
We construct the non-linear realisation of the semi-direct product of E11 and its vector representation in eleven dimensions and find the dynamical equations it predicts at low levels. These equations are completely determined by the…
Gravity duals for little string theories --- which give rise to four-dimensional theories that undergo permanent confinement in the infrared --- have not been studied in great detail. We address this question in the framework of heterotic…
We construct equivariant, string and leading order characteristic classes and Chern-Simons classes for certain infinite rank bundles associated to fibrations occurring in loop spaces, Gromov-Witten theory and gauge theory. Results include a…
We study the free energy of four-dimensional CFTs on deformed spheres. For generic nonsupersymmetric CFTs only the coefficient of the logarithmic divergence in the free energy is physical, which is an extremum for the round sphere. We then…
We find a large new class of explicit solutions preserving four supercharges in six-dimensional supergravity. The solutions are determined by solving a linear system of equations on a four-dimensional Kahler base studied by LeBrun. For…
We consider pure D3-brane configurations of IIB string theory which lead to supersymmetric solutions containing an AdS$_3$ factor. They can provide new examples of AdS$_3$/CFT$_2$ examples on D3-branes whose worldvolume is partially…
We describe a new first-order formulation of D=11 supergravity which shows that that theory can be understood to arise from a certain topological field theory by the imposition of a set of local constraints on the fields, plus a lagrange…
We investigate supersymmetric extrema of Abelian gauged supergravity theories with non-trivial vector multiplets and 8 supercharges in four and five dimensions. The scalar fields of these models parameterize a manifold consisting of…
We study a deformation of the type IIB Maldacena-Nunez background which arises as the near-horizon limit of NS5 branes wrapped on a two-cycle. This background is dual to a "little string theory" compactified on a two-sphere, a theory which…
We interpret infinite-distance limits in the complex structure moduli space of F-theory compactifications to six dimensions in the light of general ideas in quantum gravity. The limits we focus on arise from non-minimal singularities in the…
We investigate deformations of extremal near-horizon geometries in Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton theory, including various topological terms, and also in D=11 supergravity. By linearizing the field equations and Bianchi identities over the…
We construct M-theory on the orbifold C^2/Z_N by coupling 11-dimensional supergravity to a seven-dimensional Yang-Mills theory located on the orbifold fixed plane. It is shown that the resulting action is supersymmetric to leading…
This Ph.D. thesis investigates effective field and string theories in which supersymmetry is realized and broken in various ways. Chapter 1 addresses effective theories with nonlinearly realized supersymmetry, constructed using the…
Using a reconstruction theorem, we prove that the supersymmetry conditions for a certain class of flux backgrounds are equivalent with a tractable subsystem of relations on differential forms which encodes the full set of contraints arising…
This thesis analyses gauged supergravities in various dimensions and their possible origin from compactifications of string theory. In the effective description the fluxes appear in the theory as deformation parameters generating a…
The low-energy description of wrapped M5 branes in compactifications of M-theory on a Calabi-Yau threefold times a circle is given by a conformal field theory studied by Maldacena, Strominger and Witten and known as the MSW CFT. Taking the…
We construct a consistent truncation of six-dimensional matter coupled $F(4)$ gauged supergravity on a cornucopia of two-dimensional surfaces including a spindle, disc, domain wall and other novel backgrounds to four-dimensional minimal…
We test the AdS/CFT correspondence by computing the partition function of some $\mathcal{N}=2$ quiver Chern-Simons-matter theories on three-sphere. The M-theory backgrounds are of the Freund-Rubin type with the seven-dimensional internal…
We consider the compactification of the dual form of $N=1$ $D=10$ supergravity on a six-dimensional Calabi-Yau manifold. An $N=1$ off-shell supergravity effective Lagrangian in four dimensions can be constructed in a dual version of the…
We construct the AdS description of the Higgs branch of the finite {\cal N}=2 Sp(N) gauge theory with one antisymmetric hypermultiplet and four fundamental hypermultiplets. Holography, combined with the non-renormalization of the metric on…