Related papers: Z/2 harmonic 1-forms, R-trees, and the Morgan-Shal…

We prove that for any nondegenerate $\mathbb{Z}/2$ harmonic $1$-form, there exists a metric perturbation producing a new nondegenerate $\mathbb{Z}/2$ harmonic $1$-form whose ordinary zero set is discrete. As an application, we show that for…

We demonstrate that type II string theory compactified on a singular Calabi-Yau manifold is related to $c=1$ string theory compactified at the self-dual radius. We establish this result in two ways. First we show that complex structure…

Using $\mathbb{Z}_3$ symmetry, we present a topological condition for the existence of the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ harmonic 1-forms over Riemannian manifold. As a corollary, if $L$ is an oriented link on $S^3$ with determinant zero, then there…

We study the topological properties of the leaves of the singular foliation induced by a closed 1-form of Morse type on a compact orbifold. In particular, we establish criteria that characterize when all such leaves are compact, when they…

In this paper, we give an explicit construction of families of $\mathbb{Z}_2$-harmonic 1-forms that degenerate to manifolds with cylindrical ends. We do this by considering certain linear combinations of $L^2$-bounded…

A gauge theoretic description of the Morgan-Shalen compactification of the $\SL$ character variety of the fundamental group of a hyperbolic surface is given in terms of a natural compactification of the moduli space of Higgs bundles via the…

We study ${\cal N}=2$ compactifications of heterotic string theory on the CHL orbifold $(K3\times T^2)/\mathbb{Z}_N$ with $N= 2, 3, 5, 7$. $\mathbb{Z}_N$ acts as an involution on $K3$ together with a shift of $1/N$ along one of the circles…

This paper unites the gauge-theoretic and hyperbolic-geometric perspectives on the asymptotic geometry of the character variety of SL(2,C) representations of a surface group. Specifically, we find an asymptotic correspondence between the…

We discuss `hd-compactifications' of $\SL(2,\bbK)$ for $\bbK=\bbC$ or $\bbR.$ These are compact manifolds with boundary on which both the Schwartz and the Harish-Chandra Schwartz spaces are shown to be relatively standard spaces of conormal…

We develop a gluing theorem for non-degenerate $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$-harmonic $1$-forms on compact manifolds, in which non-degenerate $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$-harmonic $1$-forms on $\mathbb{R}^{n}$ are glued to the regular zeros of a non-degenerate…

The moduli dependence of $(2,2)$ superstring compactifications based on Calabi--Yau hypersurfaces in weighted projective space has so far only been investigated for Fermat-type polynomial constraints. These correspond to Landau-Ginzburg…

We use tropical and nonarchimedean geometry to study the moduli space of genus $0$ stable maps to $\mathbb{P}^1$ relative to two points. This space is exhibited as a tropical compactification in a toric variety. Moreover, the fan of this…

Only four $\mathbb{T}^2/\mathbb{Z}_K$ orbifold building blocks are admissible in heterotic string compactifications. We investigate the flavor properties of all of these building blocks. In each case, we identify the traditional and modular…

In type IIB string compactifications on a Calabi-Yau threefold, the hypermultiplet moduli space $M_H$ must carry an isometric action of the modular group SL(2,Z), inherited from the S-duality symmetry of type IIB string theory in ten…

We work out the relation between automorphic forms on SO(s+2,2) and gauge one-loop corrections of heterotic K3 x T^2 string compactifications for the cases s=0,1. We find that one-loop gauge corrections of any orbifold limit of K3 can…

We search for $N=2$, $d=4$ theories which can be realized both as heterotic string compactifications on $K_{3}\times T^{2}$ and as type II string compactifications on Calabi-Yau threefolds. In such cases, the exact non-perturbative…

We investigate orbifold compactifications of the heterotic string, addressing in detail their construction, classification and phenomenological potential. We present a strategy to search for models resembling the minimal supersymmetric…

We compute the mass and multiplet spectrum of M theory compactified on the product of AdS(4) spacetime by the Stiefel manifold V(5,2)=SO(5)/SO(3), and we use this information to deduce via the AdS/CFT map the primary operator content of the…

These are notes based on lectures given at TASI99. We review the geometry of the moduli space of N=2 theories in four dimensions from the point of view of superstring compactification. The cases of a type IIA or type IIB string compactified…

We show that the Korevaar-Schoen limit of the sequence of equivariant harmonic maps corresponding to a sequence of irreducible $SL_2({\mathbb C})$ representations of the fundamental group of a compact Riemannian manifold is an equivariant…