Related papers: The Octagon and the Non-Supersymmetric String Land…
In this paper we study dynamical supersymmetry breaking in absence of gravity with the matter content of the minimal supersymmetric standard model. The hidden sector of the theory is a strongly coupled gauge theory, realized in terms of…
This Ph.D. thesis investigates effective field and string theories in which supersymmetry is realized and broken in various ways. Chapter 1 addresses effective theories with nonlinearly realized supersymmetry, constructed using the…
We engineer a class of quiver gauge theories with several interesting features by studying D-branes at a simple Calabi-Yau singularity. At weak 't Hooft coupling we argue using field theory techniques that these theories admit both…
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…
We give a concise geometric recipe for constructing D-brane gauge theories that exhibit metastable SUSY breaking. We present two simple examples in terms of branes at deformed CY singularities.
We propose a three dimensional non-supersymmetric theory that is conformal in the large N limit. In a certain well defined bosonic sub-sector of gauge invariant operators, this theory is planar equivalent to the theory recently proposed by…
We use equivariant K-theory to classify charges of new (possibly non-supersymmetric) states localized on various orientifolds in Type II string theory. We also comment on the stringy construction of new D-branes and demonstrate the discrete…
We present nontrivial examples of d=3 gauge theories with sixteen and eight supercharges which are infrared dual at special points in the moduli space. This duality is distinct from mirror symmetry. To demonstrate duality we construct the…
Orientifold projections are an important ingredient in geometrical engineering of Quantum Field Theory. However, an orientifold can break down the superconformal symmetry and no new superconformal fixed points are admitted (II scenario);…
In this paper we construct and examine new supersymmetric solutions of massive IIA supergravity that are obtained using non-Abelian T-duality applied to the Baryonic Branch of the Klebanov-Strassler background. The geometries display SU(2)…
A new class of warped Anti-de Sitter solutions is found, arising as the near-horizon region of various semi-localized brane intersections. The dual gauge theories of AdS in warped spacetimes have reduced supersymmetry, which is pertinent to…
We show how translational invariance can be broken by the vacuum that drives the spontaneous symmetry breaking of extra-dimensional extensions of the Standard Model, when delta-like interactions between brane and bulk scalar fields are…
In the framework of superfield formalism, we demonstrate the existence of a new local, covariant, continuous and nilpotent (dual-BRST) symmetry for the BRST invariant Lagrangian density of a self-interacting two ($1 + 1$)-dimensional (2D)…
We propose a new class of non-factorising D-branes in the product group GxG where the fluxes and metrics on the two factors do not necessarily coincide. They generalise the maximally symmetric permutation branes which are known to exist…
The paper discusses the connection between S-duality and string-theoretic picture-changing formalism. The singular limit of the picture-changing transformation at zero momentum leads to the presence of the topological 5-form charge in the…
We construct new string vacua featuring Brane Supersymmetry Breaking, based on $T^4/\mathbb{Z}_N$ orientifolds with $\text{O}5_+$ planes and $\overline{\text{D}5}$ branes. Differently from the original construction, in these vacua the…
We discuss consistency conditions for branes at orbifold singularities. The conditions have a world-sheet interpretation in terms of tadpole cancellation and a space-time interpretation in terms of anomalies. As examples, we consider type…
We introduce a new brane-world model in which the bulk solution consists of outgoing plane waves. This is an exact solution to string theory with no naked singularities. The recently discussed self-tuning mechanism to cancel the…
We study the SO(3)-invariant relevant deformations of N=4 SU(N) gauge theory using the methods of Polchinski and Strassler. We present the region of parameter space where the non-supersymmetric vacuum is still described by stable…
In this thesis we elaborate on the three subjects of the title. We first show that supertubes exist and still preserve some supersymmetry in a large variety of curved backgrounds. Within the AdS/CFT correspondence we study the supersymmetry…