Related papers: The duality covariant geometry and DSZ quantizatio…
A system of gravity coupled to a 2-form gauge field, a dilaton and Yang-Mills fields in $2n$ dimensions arises from the (2,1) sigma model or string. The field equations imply that the curvature with torsion and Yang-Mills field strength are…
We give the global mathematical formulation of a class of generalized four-dimensional theories of gravity coupled to scalar matter and to Abelian gauge fields. In such theories, the scalar fields are described by a section of a surjective…
Harnessing the unimodular degree of freedom in the definition of any toric diagram, we present a method of constructing inequivalent gauge theories which are world-volume theories of D-branes probing the same toric singularity. These…
We extend the notion of self-duality to spaces built from a set of representations of the Lorentz group with bosonic or fermionic behaviour, not having the traditional spin-one upper-bound of super Minkowski space. The generalized…
We review the construction of free gauge theories for gauge fields in arbitrary representations of the Lorentz group in $D$ dimensions. We describe the multi-form calculus which gives the natural geometric framework for these theories. We…
We classify possible `self-duality' equations for p-form gauge fields in space-time dimension up to D=16, generalizing the pioneering work of Corrigan et al. (1982) on Yang-Mills fields (p=1) for D from 5 to 8. We impose two crucial…
We reformulate and motivate AKSZ-type topological field theories in pedestrian terms, explaining how they arise as the most general Schwartz-type topological actions subject to a simple constraint, and how they generalize Chern$-$Simons…
This paper introduces a geometric mechanics framework for constrained systems on principal bundles through \emph{compatible pairs} $(\mathcal{D}, \lambda)$, addressing fundamental challenges in gauge-constrained physical systems. We…
The geometric structure of theories with gauge fields of spins two and higher should involve a higher spin generalisation of Riemannian geometry. Such geometries are discussed and the case of $W_\infty$-gravity is analysed in detail. While…
Given a two-dimensional quantum lattice model with an abelian gauge theory interpretation, we investigate a duality operation that amounts to gauging its invertible 1-form symmetry, followed by gauging the resulting 0-form symmetry in a…
We study the higher derivative corrections that occur in type II superstring theories in ten dimensions or less. Assuming invariance under a discrete duality group G(Z) we show that the generic functions of the scalar fields that occur can…
We show that 4D gauge theories with Green-Schwarz anomaly cancellation and possible generalized Chern-Simons terms admit a formulation that is manifestly covariant with respect to electric/magnetic duality transformations. This generalizes…
We analyse the `quantization commutes with reduction' problem (first studied in physics by Dirac, and known in the mathematical literature also as the Guillemin-Sternberg Conjecture) for the conjugate action of a compact connected Lie group…
Duality groups as (spontaneously broken) gauge symmetries for toroidal backgrounds, and their role in ($\infty$-dimensional) underlying string gauge algebras are reviewed. For curved backgrounds, it is shown that there is a duality in the…
Via partial resolution of Abelian orbifolds we present an algorithm for extracting a consistent set of gauge theory data for an arbitrary toric variety whose singularity a D-brane probes. As illustrative examples, we tabulate the matter…
We perform an in-depth analysis of the transformation rules under duality for couplings of theories containing multiple scalars, $p$-form gauge fields, linearized gravitons or $(p,1)$ mixed symmetry tensors. Following a similar reasoning to…
We present the first formulation of linearised gravity in four dimensions which is manifestly Lorentz covariant and democratic, i.e. treats the two frames related by electric-magnetic duality on equal footing. It is well-known that…
We review and extend the vertex algebra framework linking gauge theory constructions and a quantum deformation of the Geometric Langlands Program. The relevant vertex algebras are associated to junctions of two boundary conditions in a 4d…
A rich pattern of gauge symmetries is found in the moduli space of heterotic string toroidal compactifications, at fixed points of the T-duality transformations. We analyze this pattern for generic tori, and scrutinize in full detail…
Duality is an indispensable tool for describing the strong-coupling dynamics of gauge theories. However, its actual realization is often quite subtle: quantities such as the partition function can transform covariantly, with degrees of…