Related papers: On the spin geometry of supergravity and string th…
We note that the non-perturbative quantisation of supergravity as recently investigated using loop quantum gravity techniques provides an opportunity to probe an interesting sector of the AdS/CFT correspondence, which is usually not…
We discuss aspects of global and gauged symmetries in quantum field theory and quantum gravity, focusing on discrete gauge symmetries. An effective Lagrangian description of $\Z_p$ gauge theories shows that they are associated with an…
Supergravity provides the effective field theories for string compactifications. The deformation of the maximal supergravities by non-abelian gauge interactions is only possible for a restricted class of charges. Generically these…
A brief discussion is presented assessing the achievements and challenges of string phenomenology: the subfield dedicated to study the potential for string theory to make contact with particle physics and cosmology. Building from the well…
This is a pedagogical review article surveying the various approaches towards understanding gauge coupling unification within string theory. As is well known, one of the major problems confronting string phenomenology has been an apparent…
This article contains an overview of some recent attempts at understanding supergravity and string duals of four dimensional gauge theories using the AdS/CFT correspondence. We discuss the general philosophy underlying the various ways to…
This paper discusses some results on semiclassical string configurations lying in the IR sector of supergravity backgrounds dual to confining gauge theories. On the gauge theory side, the string states we analyse correspond to Wilson loops,…
This thesis consists of two parts. In the first part we study some topics in $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmeric gauge theory and the relation to matrix models. We review the relevant non-perturbative techniques for computing effective…
In this paper we give a brief account of the main aspects of the theory of associated and principal super bundles. As an application, we review the Borel-Weil-Bott Theorem in the super setting, and some results on projective embeddings of…
We start from a quantum computational principle suggested for string theory in a previous paper and discuss how it might lead to a dynamical principle implying the correct classical gravitational limit. Besides this, we briefly look at some…
We consider three-dimensional ${\mathcal N}=2$ supersymmetric field theories defined on general complex-valued backgrounds of Euclidean new minimal supergravity admitting two Killing spinors of opposite $R$-charges. We compute partition…
These lectures present some topics of string phenomenology and contain two parts. In the first part, I review the possibility of lowering the string scale in the TeV region, that provides a theoretical framework for solving the mass…
I investigate two discrete models of random geometries, namely simplicial quantum gravity and quantum string theory. In four-dimensional simplicial quantum gravity, I show that the addition of matter gauge fields to the model is capable of…
We review the group-geometric approach to supergravity theories, in the perspective of recent developments and applications. Usual diffeomorphisms, gauge symmetries and supersymmetries are unified as superdiffeomorphisms in a supergroup…
We explain the need for a theory of quantum gravity and some general ideas about string theory, including the idea of the derivation of the Hawking Bekenstein entropy formula for extremal black holes. We then give a general description of…
This set of lecture notes first gives an introduction to the geometry of principal bundles. Next, it demonstrates how they can be used to formalize the concept of gauge theories arising in physics. A basic familiarity with the differential…
This thesis is almost entirely devoted to studying string theory backgrounds characterized by simple geometrical and integrability properties. The archetype of this type of system is given by Wess-Zumino-Witten models, describing string…
Division algebras have demonstrated their utility in studying non-associative algebras and their connection to the Standard Model through complex Clifford algebras. This article focuses on exploring the connection between these complex…
This talk begins with some history and basic facts about string theory and its connections with strong interactions. Comparisons of stacks of Dirichlet branes with curved backgrounds produced by them are used to motivate the AdS/CFT…
Building on the universal covering group of the general linear group, we introduce the composite spinor bundle whose subbundles are Lorentz spin structures associated with different gravitational fields. General covariant transformations of…