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We determine and analyze maximally supersymmetric configurations in four-dimensional gauged N=2 supergravity, preserving eight supercharges. These models include arbitrary electric gaugings in the vector- and hypermultiplet sectors. We…
We demonstrate that interacting ultraviolet fixed points in four dimensions exist at strong coupling, and away from large-$N$ Veneziano limits. This is established exemplarily for semi-simple supersymmetric gauge theories with chiral matter…
The subject of this thesis are various ways to construct four-dimensional quantum field theories from string theory. In a first part we study the generation of a supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, coupled to an adjoint chiral superfield,…
We study gravity duals of the minimal $N=2$ super Yang-Mills (SYM) gauge theories in five dimensions using the matter coupled $F(4)$ gauged supergravity in six dimensions. The $F(4)$ gauged supergravity coupled to $n$ vector multiplets…
We consider the type II superstring compactified on Calabi-Yau threefolds at finite temperature. The latter is implemented at the string level by a free action on the Euclidean time circle. We show that all Kahler and complex structure…
In this paper, we prove a transversality theorem for the moduli space of perturbed special Lagrangian submanifolds in a 6-dimensional manifold equipped with a generalization of a Calabi-Yau structure. These perturbed special Lagrangian…
Three dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories are often in a gapped phase, in which SUSY is spontaneously broken, if all the matter fields are massive and decoupled in the low energy. We study this phase in the large $N$ limit using the…
We investigate consistency conditions for supersymmetric gauge theories in higher dimensions. First, we give a survey of Seiberg's necessary conditions for the existence of such theories with simple groups in five and six dimensions. We…
The moduli space of flat connections for maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories, in a space-time of the form T^3xR, contains isolated points, corresponding to normalizable zero energy states, for certain simple gauge groups G. We…
The effective action of N=2 supersymmetric 5-dimensional supergravity arising from compactifications of M-theory on Calabi-Yau threefolds receives non-perturbative corrections from wrapped Euclidean membranes and fivebranes. These…
Gauge unification in a five dimensional supersymmetric SO(10) model compactified on an orbifold $S^1/(Z_2 \times Z_2^{\prime})$ is studied. One orbifolding reduces N=2 supersymmetry to N=1, and the other breaks SO(10) to the Pati-Salam…
We argue that in theories of quantum gravity with discrete gauge symmetries, e.g. $\textbf{Z}_k$, the gauge couplings of U$(1)$ gauge symmetries become weak in the limit of large $k$, as $g\to k^{-\alpha}$ with $\alpha$ a positive order 1…
We present the maximally supersymmetric three-dimensional gauged supergravities. Owing to the special properties of three dimensions -- especially the on-shell duality between vector and scalar fields, and the purely topological character…
We study M-theory on a Calabi-Yau fourfold with a smooth surface $S$ of $A_{N-1}$ singularities. The resulting three-dimensional theory has a $\mathcal{N}=2$ $SU(N)$ gauge theory sector, which we obtain from a twisted dimensional reduction…
We revisit the singular IIB supergravity solution describing M fractional 3-branes on the conifold [hep-th/0002159]. Its 5-form flux decreases, which we explain by showing that the relevant \NN=1 SUSY SU(N+M)xSU(N) gauge theory undergoes…
We study the structure of the moduli spaces of vacua and superpotentials of N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories in three dimensions. By analyzing the instanton corrections, we compute the exact superpotentials and determine the quantum…
We derive the five-dimensional effective action of strongly coupled heterotic string theory for the complete (1,1) sector of the theory by performing a reduction, on a Calabi-Yau three-fold, of M-theory on S^1/Z_2. A crucial ingredient for…
We investigate the gauge coupling renormalization in orbifold field theories preserving 4-dimensional N=1 supersymmetry in the framework of 4-dimensional effective supergravity. As a concrete example, we consider the 5-dimensional…
We give the supergravity duals of commutative and noncommutative non-abelian gauge theories with N=2 in 2+1 dimensions. The moduli space on the Coulomb branch of these theories is studied using supergravity.
The unification of gauge couplings suggests that there is an underlying (supersymmetric) unification of the strong, electromagnetic and weak interactions. The prediction of the unification scale may be the first quantitative indication that…