Related papers: Strings, Virasoro Sandwiches and Worldsheet Horizo…

We use supersymmetric localization techniques to study the low-energy dynamics of BPS vortex-strings in four-dimensional N=2 theories. We focus on theories with SU(Nc)xU(1) gauge group and Nf hypermultiplets, all in the fundamental…

We generate a class of string backgrounds by a sequence of TsT transformations of the NS1-NS5 system that we argue are holographically dual to states in a single-trace $T\bar T + J\bar T + T\bar J$-deformed CFT$_2$. The new string…

We formulate a worldsheet description of string theory in the background of a single decoupled NS5-brane, which is a particularly simple example of ``little string'' holography. The worldsheet theory involves a gauged Wess-Zumino-Witten…

Starting with Witten's twistor string, chiral string theories have emerged that describe field theory amplitudes without the towers of massive states of conventional strings. These models are known as ambitwistor strings due to their target…

We study the Schwinger-Dyson equations of a matrix model for an open-closed string theory. The free energy with source terms for scaling operators satisfies the same Virasoro conditions as those of the pure closed string and is obtained…

We study universal features of the density of one-particle states $\rho(E)$ in weakly coupled theories of gravity at energies above the quantum gravity cutoff $\Lambda$, defined as the scale suppressing higher-derivative corrections to the…

I review the recent progress in providing a statistical foundation for black hole thermodynamics. In the context of string theory, one can now identify and count quantum states associated with black holes. One can also compute the analog of…

We study duality and local symmetries of closed bosonic string from the perspectives of worldsheet approach in the phase space path integral formalism. It is shown that the Ward identities reflecting the local symmetries associated with…

We suggest a new model of string theory with world-sheet supersymmetry. It possesses an additional global fermionic symmetry which is similar in many ways to BRST symmetry. The spectrum consists of massless states of Rarita-Schwinger fields…

The quantum worldsheet dynamics of vortex strings contains information about the 4d non-Abelian gauge theory in which the string lives. Here I tell this story. The string worldsheet theory is typically some variant of the CP^{N-1}…

We develop the general formalism of string scattering from decaying D-branes in bosonic string theory. In worldsheet perturbation theory, amplitudes can be written as a sum of correlators in a grand canonical ensemble of unitary random…

We study collisions of two high-energy closed strings in the framework of $D$-dimensional general relativity. The model of a high-energy closed string is introduced as a {/it pp}-wave generated by a ring-shaped source with the radius $R$.…

Spacetime Virasoro and affine Lie algebras for strings propagating in AdS3 are known to all orders in $\alpha'$. The central extension of such algebras is a string vertex, whose expectation value can depend on the number of long strings…

Gauge symmetries generally appear as a constraint algebra, under which one expects all physical states to be singlets. However, quantum anomalies and boundary conditions introduce central charges and change this picture, thus causing…

Superstring theories in the critical dimension D=10 are connected to one another by a well-explored web of dualities. In this paper we use closed-string tachyon condensation to connect the supersymmetric moduli space of the critical…

I review some recent work (done in collaboration with G. Veneziano) which clarifies the existence of a correspondence between self-gravitating fundamental string states and Schwarzschild black holes. The main result is a detailed…

We identify new, rather serious, physical and axiomatic inconsistencies of the current formulation of string theories due to the lack of invariant units necessary for measurements, lack of preservation in time of Hermiticity-observability,…

We derive boundary states which describe configurations of multiple parallel branes with arbitrary open string states interactions in bosonic string theory. This is obtained by a careful discussion of the factorization of open/closed string…

String theory on AdS3 space-times with boundary conditions that allow for black hole states has global asymptotic symmetries which include an infinite dimensional conformal algebra. Using the conformal current algebra for sigma-models on…

We determine explicitly all structure constants of the whole chiral BRST cohomology ring in $D=2$ string theory including both the discrete states and tachyon states. This is made possible by establishing several identities for Schur…