Related papers: Non-orientable surfaces and electric-magnetic dual…
Kapustin and Witten showed that a twisted version of N=4 gauge theory in four dimensions compactifies to a two-dimensional sigma-model whose target space is the Hitchin moduli space. In this talk, I consider the reduction of the gauge…
We study four dimensional $Z_2 \times Z_2$ (shift)-orientifolds in presence of internal magnetic fields and NS-NS $B$-field backgrounds, describing in some detail one explicit example with N=1 supersymmetry. These models are related by…
The structure of S-duality in U(1) gauge theory on a 4-manifold M is examined using the formalism of noncommutative geometry. A noncommutative space is constructed from the algebra of Wilson-'t Hooft line operators which encodes both the…
Recently, a D-brane construction in type IIA string theory was shown to yield the electric/magnetic duality of four dimensional N=1 supersymmetric U(N_c) gauge theories with N_f flavours of quark. We present here an extension of that…
We study brane configurations which correspond to N=1 field theories in four dimensions. By inverting the order of the NS 5-branes and D6-branes, a check on dualities in four dimensional theories can be made. We consider a brane…
We discuss some aspects of the physics of branes in the presence of orientifolds and the corresponding worldvolume gauge dynamics. We show that at strong coupling orientifolds sometimes turn into bound states of orientifolds and branes, and…
We show that recently proposed linear sigma models with torsion can be obtained from unconventional branches of conventional gauge theories. This observation puts models with log interactions on firm footing. If non-anomalous multiplets are…
We construct the low-energy effective field theory for a D3-brane in constant R-R 2-form potential background as the S-dual theory of a D3-brane in NS-NS B-field background. Despite the non-Abelian algebra of the noncommutative U(1) gauge…
We consider a brane configuration consisting of intersecting Neveu-Schwarz five-branes, Dirichlet four-branes, and an orientifold four-plane in a C^2/Z_3 orbifold background. We show that the low-energy dynamics is described by a four…
Extending recent work on SU gauge theory, we engineer local string models for N=1 four-dimensional SO and USp gauge theories coupled to matter in the fundamental. The local models are type IIB orientifolds with D7 branes on a curved…
D-branes can end on orbifold planes if the action of the orbifold group includes (-1)^{F_L}. We consider configurations of D-branes ending on such orbifolds and study the low-energy theory on their worldvolume. We apply our results to gauge…
We propose a relation between the operator of S-duality (of N=4 super Yang-Mills theory in 3+1D) and a topological theory in one dimension lower. We construct the topological theory by compactifying N=4 super Yang-Mills on a circle with an…
We generalize recent construction of four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=1$ SCFT from wrapping six-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=(2,0)$ theory on a Riemann surface to the case of $D$-type with outer-automorphism twists. This construction allows us to…
We study twisted N=2 superconformal gauge theory on a product of two Riemann surfaces Sigma and C. The twisted theory is topological along C and holomorphic along Sigma and does not depend on the gauge coupling or theta-angle. Upon…
We revisit electric and magnetic surface charges and edge modes in four-dimensional Maxwell theory and QED on a spacetime with a finite spatial boundary. Using the S-wall, which implements electromagnetic duality, we clarify the dual…
We discuss issues related to orientifolds and the brane realization for gauge theories with orthogonal and symplectic groups. We specifically discuss the case of theories with (hidden) global SO(2n) symmetry, from three to six dimensions.…
Compactification of M- / string theory on manifolds with $G_2$ structure yields a wide variety of 4D and 3D physical theories. We analyze the local geometry of such compactifications as captured by a gauge theory obtained from a…
We investigate the low-energy effective description of non-geometric compactifications constructed by T-dualizing two or three of the directions of a T^3 with non-vanishing H-flux. Our approach is to introduce a D3-brane in these geometries…
The bound state of one NS5 brane (wrapped on a $\mathbb{T}^4$) and $N$ NS1-branes has two dual descriptions: its low-energy dynamics is described by the symmetric orbifold of $\mathbb{T}^4$, while the near horizon geometry is captured by…
We investigate the noncommutative gauge theories arising on the worldvolumes of D-branes in non-geometric backgrounds obtained by T-duality from twisted tori. We revisit the low-energy effective description of D-branes on three-dimensional…