Related papers: Heterotic backgrounds via generalised geometry: mo…
Heterotic backgrounds with torsion preserving minimal supersymmetry in four dimensions can be obtained as orbifolds of principal $T^{2}$ bundles over $K3$. We consider a worldsheet description of these backgrounds as gauged linear…
We define intrinsic torsion in generalised geometry and use it to introduce a new notion of generalised special holonomy. We then consider generic warped supersymmetric flux compactifications of M theory and Type II of the form…
We discuss the structure of "exceptional generalised geometry" (EGG), an extension of Hitchin's generalised geometry that provides a unified geometrical description of backgrounds in eleven-dimensional supergravity. On a d-dimensional…
We simplify the classification of supersymmetric solutions with compact holonomy of the Killing spinor equations of heterotic supergravity using the field equations and the additional assumption that the 3-form flux is closed. We determine…
We analyse the geometry of generic Minkowski $\mathcal{N}=1$, $D=4$ flux compactifications in string theory, the default backgrounds for string model building. In M-theory they are the natural string theoretic extensions of $\mathrm{G}_2$…
We study the hypersymplectic geometry of the moduli space of solutions to Hitchin's harmonic map equations on a $G$-bundle. This is the split-signature analogue of Hitchin's Higgs bundle moduli space. Due to the lack of definiteness, this…
In very rough terms, the main theorem is that the set, which consists of semistable vector bundles with trivial rational Chern classes and nontrivial kth cohomology on a smooth complex projective variety, is a degeneration of a union of…
We study the problem of string propagation in a general instanton background for the case of the complete heterotic superstring. We define the concept of generalized HyperK\" ahler manifolds and we relate it to (4,4) superconformal…
In this thesis, we study moduli in compactifications of ten-dimensional heterotic supergravity. We consider supersymmetric compactifications to four-dimensional maximally symmetric space, commonly referred to as the Strominger system. The…
Generalized complex geometry, as developed by Hitchin, contains complex and symplectic geometry as its extremal special cases. In this thesis, we explore novel phenomena exhibited by this geometry, such as the natural action of a B-field.…
We consider a family of perturbative heterotic string backgrounds. These are complex threefolds X with c_1 = 0, each with a gauge field solving the Hermitian Yang-Mill's equations and compatible B and H fields that satisfy the anomaly…
We explain how a generic HKT geometry can be derived using the language of N = 4 supersymmetric quantum mechanics. To this end, one should consider a Lagrangian involving several (4,4,0) multiplets defined in harmonic superspace and subject…
We consider the pure spinor sigma model in an arbitrary curved background. The use of Hamiltonian formalism allows for a uniform description of the worldsheet fields where matter and ghosts enter the action on the same footing. This…
We determine the geometry of supersymmetric heterotic string backgrounds for which all parallel spinors with respect to the connection $\hat\nabla$ with torsion $H$, the NS$\otimes$NS three-form field strength, are Killing. We find that…
New heterotic torsional geometries are constructed as orbifolds of T^2 bundles over K3. The discrete symmetries considered can be freely-acting or have fixed points and/or fixed curves. We give explicit constructions when the base K3 is…
We present some properties of hyperkahler torsion (or heterotic) geometry in four dimensions that make it even more tractable than its hyperkahler counterpart. We show that in $d=4$ hypercomplex structures and weak torsion hyperkahler…
We study supersymmetric compactification to four dimensions with non-zero H-flux in heterotic string theory. The background metric is generically conformally balanced and can be conformally Kahler if the primitive part of the H-flux…
This work has its origins in an attempt to describe systematically the integrable geometries and gauge theories in dimensions one to four related to twistor theory. In each such dimension, there is a nondegenerate integrable geometric…
We classify the geometries of the most general warped, flux AdS backgrounds of heterotic supergravity up to two loop order in sigma model perturbation theory. We show under some mild assumptions that there are no $AdS_n$ backgrounds with…
A non-linear generalization of the Dirac operator in 4-dimensions, obtained by replacing the spinor representation with a hyperKahler manifold admitting certain symmetries, is considered. We show that the existence of a covariantly…