Related papers: A new twist on heterotic string compactifications
Noncompact groups, similar to those that appeared in various supergravity theories in the 1970's, have been turning up in recent studies of string theory. First it was discovered that moduli spaces of toroidal compactification are given by…
This review talk focusses on some of the interesting developments in the area of superstring compactification that have occurred in the last couple of years. These include the discovery that ``mirror symmetric" pairs of Calabi--Yau spaces,…
We discuss aspects of the heterotic string effective field theories in orbifold constructions of the heterotic string. We calculate the moduli dependence of threshold corrections to gauge couplings in (2,2) symmetric orbifold…
Proper symmetries act on fields while pseudo-symmetries act on both fields and coupling constants. We identify the pseudo-duality groups that act as symmetries of the equations of motion of general systems of scalar and vector fields and…
Duality Symmetry is studied for heterotic string orbifold compactifications in the presence of a general background which in addition to the metric and antisymmetric tensor contains both discrete and continuous Wilson lines background.
We re-examine the question of heterotic - heterotic string duality in six dimensions and argue that the $E_8\times E_8$ heterotic string, compactified on $K3$ with equal instanton numbers in the two $E_8$'s, has a self-duality that inverts…
We reconsider some older constructions of T-duality, based on automorphisms of the worldsheet operator algebra, in a modern context. It has been long known that at special points in the moduli space of torus compactifications, the target…
We investigate the lifting of half-maximal four-dimensional gauged supergravities to compactifications of string theory. It is shown that a class of such supergravities can arise from compactifications of IIA string theory on manifolds of…
We show how enhanced gauge symmetry in type II string theory compactified on a Calabi--Yau threefold arises from singularities in the geometry of the target space. When the target space of the type IIA string acquires a genus $g$ curve $C$…
We undertake a systematic analysis of non-geometric backgrounds in string theory by seeking stringy liftings of a class of gauged supergravity theories. In addition to conventional flux compactifications and non-geometric T-folds with…
In this thesis the recently developed duality covariant approach to string and M-theory is investigated. In this formalism the U-duality symmetry of M-theory or T-duality symmetry of Type II string theory becomes manifest upon extending…
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…
The heterotic string theory, compactified to four dimensions, has been conjectured to have a duality symmetry (S duality) that transforms the dilaton nonlinearly. If valid, this symmetry could provide an important means of obtaining…
Many important ideas about string duality that appear in conventional $\T^2$ compactification have analogs for $\T^2$ compactification without vector structure. We analyze some of these issues and show, in particular, how orientifold planes…
We investigate the orbifold limits of string theory compactifications with geometric and non-geometric fluxes. Exploiting the connection between internal fluxes and structure constants of the gaugings in the reduced supergravity theory, we…
The equations of motion of the massless sector of the two dimensional string theory, obtained by compactifying the heterotic string theory on an eight dimensional torus, is known to have an affine o(8,24) symmetry algebra generating an…
We revisit the question of gauge coupling unification at the string scale in orbifold compactifications of the heterotic string for the supersymmetric Standard Model. In the presence of discrete Wilson lines threshold corrections with…
We study a class of four-dimensional N=1 heterotic string theories which have nontrivial quantum dynamics arising from asymptotically free gauge groups. These models are obtained by orbifolding 4d N=2 heterotic/type II dual pairs by…
We investigate compactifications with duality twists and their relation to orbifolds and compactifications with fluxes. Inequivalent compactifications are classified by conjugacy classes of the U-duality group and result in gauged…
Duality symmetries of supergravity theories are powerful tools to restrict the number of possible actions, to link different dimensions and number of supersymmetries and might help to control quantisation. (Hodge-Dirac-)Dualisation of gauge…