Related papers: Quarter-BPS states in orbifold sigma models with A…

We analyse D-branes on orbifolds with discrete torsion, extending earlier results. We analyze certain Abelian orbifolds of the type C^3/ \Gamma, where \Gamma is given by Z_m x Z_n, for the most general choice of discrete torsion parameter.…

It is of interest to find criteria on a 2d CFT which indicate that it gives rise to emergent gravity in a macroscopic 3d AdS space via holography. Symmetric orbifolds in the large $N$ limit have partition functions which are consistent with…

We study elliptic genera of ADE-type M-strings in 6d (2,0) SCFTs from their modularity and explore the relation to topological string partition functions. We find a novel kinematical constraint that elliptic genera should follow, which…

In this note we prove an identity that equates the elliptic genus partition function of a supersymmetric sigma model on the N-fold symmetric product $M^N/S_N$ of a manifold M to the partition function of a second quantized string theory on…

Orbifold elliptic genus and elliptic genus of singular varieties are introduced and relation between them is studied. Elliptic genus of singular varieties is given in terms of a resolution of singularities and extends the elliptic genus of…

The use of the AdS/CFT correspondence to arrive at quiver gauge field theories is dicussed, focusing on the orbifolded case without supersymmetry. An abelian orbifold with the finite group $Z_{p}$ can give rise to a $G = SU(N)^p$ gauge…

We study BPS bound states of little strings in a limit where they realise monopole strings in five dimensional gauge theories. The latter have gauge group $U(M)^N$ and arise from compactification of $(1,0)$ little string theories of type…

We study orbifolds of two-dimensional topological field theories using defects. If the TFT arises as the twist of a superconformal field theory, we recover results on the Neveu-Schwarz and Ramond sectors of the orbifold theory as well as…

We describe general constraints on the elliptic genus of a 2d supersymmetric conformal field theory which has a gravity dual with large radius in Planck units. We give examples of theories which do and do not satisfy the bounds we derive,…

We discuss new types of second order phase transitions in holography by constructing striped black holes in D=4 with $AdS_{4}$ asymptotics. In the context of $AdS/CFT$, they provide the gravity duals to field theory phases in which…

We study ${\mathcal N}=(1,0)$ six-dimensional theories living on defects of non-geometric backgrounds of the $E_8\times E_8$ and the $\text{Spin}(32)/{\mathbb Z}_2$ heterotic strings. Such configurations can be analyzed by dualizing to…

Orbifolds of two-dimensional quantum field theories have a natural formulation in terms of defects or domain walls. This perspective allows for a rich generalisation of the orbifolding procedure, which we study in detail for the case of…

We construct generalized symmetries in two-dimensional symmetric product orbifold CFTs $\text{Sym}^N(\mathcal{T}),$ for a generic seed CFT $\mathcal{T}$. These symmetries are more general than the universal and maximally symmetric ones…

We study the geometry and topology of Hilbert schemes of points on the orbifold surface [C^2/G], respectively the singular quotient surface C^2/G, where G is a finite subgroup of SL(2,C) of type A or D. We give a decomposition of the…

For a 2d gauged sigma model with target space $M$ and discrete gauge group $G$, we consider a generalisation of Vafa's discrete torsion $H^2(BG; U(1))$ that assigns different local discrete torsion phases to different singular loci of the…

It is known that characters of BPS representations of extended superconformal algebras do not have good modular properties due to extra singular vectors coming from the BPS condition. In order to improve their modular properties we apply…

This work gives a manual for constructing superconformal field theories associated to a family of smooth K3 surfaces. A direct method is not known, but a combination of orbifold techniques with a non-classical duality turns out to yield…

This paper is a follow-up to the short paper arXiv:2509.19425, greatly expanding the discussion with examples and providing derivations and justifications of results presented there. We introduce a new supersymmetry index for the D1-D5 CFT…

We study $U(N)$ SYM theories on spaces with orbifold singularities via an equivalent description in terms of gauge theories on smooth manifolds with insertions of Gukov-Witten and twist defects. The combined effect of the defects is to…

K3 surfaces play a prominent role in string theory and algebraic geometry. The properties of their enumerative invariants have important consequences in black hole physics and in number theory. To a K3 surface string theory associates an…