Related papers: An Uplifting Discussion of T-Duality
We discuss heterotic string theories in two dimensions with gauge groups Spin(24) and Spin(8) x E_8. After compactification the theories exhibit a rich spectrum of states with both winding and momentum. At special points some of these…
Scherk-Schwarz compactification in string theory can be defined as orbifolding by an R symmetry, a symmetry that acts differently on bosons and fermions. Such a symmetry can arise in many situations, including toroidal and orbifold…
Following a recent suggestion by Randall and Sundrum, we consider string compactification scenarios in which a compact slice of AdS-space arises as a subspace of the compactification manifold. A specific example is provided by the type II…
In this thesis, we explore two approaches to string phenomenology. In the first half of the work, we investigate M-theory compactifications on spaces with co-dimension four, orbifold singularities. We construct M-theory on C^2/Z_N by…
We study toroidal compactifications of string theories which include compactification of a timelike coordinate. Some new features in the theory of toroidal compactifications arise. Most notably, Narain moduli space does not exist as a…
Preliminary investigations of the topological phase of string theory along the lines of a (restricted) $\dot{w}_{\infty}$ non-linear sigma model are provided. Gauge fixing the w gravity gauge fields by preserving a geometric identity Lorenz…
In this lecture we address the following issues in the context of string theories: i) The role played by S and T dualities in obtaining topological inflation in N=1 supergravity models, ii) A mechanism to generate the baryon asymmetry of…
Using the pure spinor formalism on the world-sheet, we derive the T-duality rules for all target space couplings in an efficient manner. The world-sheet path integral derivation is a proof of the equivalence of the T-dual Ramond-Ramond…
We describe some recent progress in understanding and formulating string theory which is based on extensive studies of strings in lower (D=2) dimension. At the center is a large $W_{\infty}$ symmetry that appears most simply in the matrix…
We review some examples of heterotic/type II string duality which shed light on the infrared dynamics of string compactifications with N=2 and N=1 supersymmetry in four dimensions.
The recent developments in string theory suggest that the space-time coordinates should be generalized to non-commuting matrices. Postulating this suggestion as the fundamental geometrical principle, we formulate a candidate for covariant…
We examine the properties and symmetries of the lowest order effective theory of 4-dim string backgrounds with axion and dilaton fields and zero cosmological constant. The dimensional reduction yields an O(2,2) current group 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…
We study the vacuum structure of compactifications of type II string theories on orientifolds with SU(3)xSU(3) structure. We argue that generalised geometry enables us to treat these non-geometric compactifications using a supergravity…
We present a duality procedure that relates conventional four-dimensional matter-coupled N=1 supergravities to dual formulations in which auxiliary fields are replaced by field-strengths of gauge three-forms. The duality promotes specific…
String theories should reduce to ordinary four-dimensional field theories at low energies. Yet the formulation of the two are so different that such a connection, if it exists, is not immediately obvious. With the Schwinger proper-time…
We study avatars of T-duality within Sen's formalism for self-dual field strengths in various dimensions. This formalism is shown to naturally accommodate the T-duality relation between Type IIA/IIB theories when compactified on a circle…
Warped compactifications with significant warping provide one of the few known mechanisms for naturally generating large hierarchies of physical scales. We demonstrate that this mechanism is realizable in string theory, and give examples…
The data of a "2D field theory with a closed string compactification" is an equivariant chain level action of a cell decomposition of the union of all moduli spaces of punctured Riemann surfaces with each component compactified as a…
We argue that the finiteness of quantum gravity amplitudes in fully compactified theories (at least in supersymmetric cases) leads to a bottom-up prediction for the existence of non-trivial dualities. In particular, finiteness requires the…