Related papers: A missing link: Brane networks and the Cobordism C…

We use cobordism theory to analyse anomalies of finite non-abelian symmetries in 4 spacetime dimensions. By applying the method of `anomaly interplay', which uses functoriality of cobordism and naturality of the $\eta$-invariant to relate…

Many models of beyond Standard Model physics connect flavor symmetry with a discrete group. Having this symmetry arise spontaneously from a gauge theory maintains compatibility with quantum gravity and can be used to systematically prevent…

We consider heterotic string theories in nine and eight dimensions. We identify the disconnected part of the spacetime gauge group by studying the outer automorphism of the charge lattices. The absence of the global symmetry indicates the…

Inspired by the appearance of split-complex structures in the dimensional reduction of string theory, and in the theories emerging as byproducts, we study the hyper-complex formulation of Abelian gauge field theories, by incorporating a new…

Boundary conditions and defects of any codimension are natural parts of any quantum field theory. Surface defects in three-dimensional topological field theories of Turaev-Reshetikhin type have applications to two-dimensional conformal…

We consider type IIA brane configurations, similar to those that realize SO(2N) supersymmetric QCD, that include orientifold planes and anti-branes. Such brane configurations lead to Sp(2N) field theories that become supersymmetric in the…

We show that very simple theories of abelian gauge fields with a cubic Chern-Simons term in 5d have an infinite number of non-invertible co-dimension two defects. They arise by dressing the symmetry operators of the broken electric 1-form…

We study a number of (3+1)- and (2+1)-dimensional defect and boundary conformal field theories holographically dual to supergravity theories. In all cases the defects or boundaries are planar, and the defects are codimension-one. Using…

We develop the concept of supersymmetry in singular spaces, apply it in an example for 3-branes in D=5 and comment on 8-branes in D=10. The new construction has an interpretation that the brane is a sink for the flux and requires adding to…

Spontaneous symmetry breaking is a cornerstone of modern physics, defining a wealth of phenomena in condensed-matter and high-energy physics, and beyond. It requires an infinite number of degrees of freedom, and even then, for continuous…

A recent attempt to extend the geometric Langlands duality to affine Kac-Moody groups, has led Braverman and Finkelberg [arXiv:0711.2083] to conjecture a mathematical relation between the intersection cohomology of the moduli space of…

Parity and CP symmetries are broken in the world around us. Nonetheless, parity (or CP) may be a gauge symmetry which is higgsed in our universe. This is assumed in many scenarios for physics beyond the Standard Model, including the classic…

(3+1)D topological phases of matter can host a broad class of non-trivial topological defects of codimension-1, 2, and 3, of which the well-known point charges and flux loops are special cases. The complete algebraic structure of these…

With the ansatz that there exist local or global discrete symmetries in the special branes' neighborhoods, we can construct the extra dimension models with only zero modes, or the models which have large extra dimensions and arbitrarily…

We develop both the gravity and field theory sides of the Karch-Randall conjecture that the near-horizon description of a certain D5-D3 brane configuration in string theory, realized as AdS_5 x S^5 bisected by an AdS_4 x S^2 "brane", is…

In this thesis we study the dynamics of higher-dimensional gravity in a universe emerging from a brane collision. We develop a set of powerful analytic methods which, we believe, render braneworld cosmological perturbation theory solvable.…

An interesting consequence of string dualities is that they reveal situations where the geometry of a string background appears to be globally ill-defined, a phenomenon usually referred to as non-geometry. On the other hand, string theory…

We analyze various brane configurations corresponding to field theories in three, four and five dimensions. We find brane configurations which correspond to three dimensional N=2 and four dimensional N=1 supersymmetric QCD theories with…

The lift of K-theoretic D-brane charge to M-theory was recently hypothesized to land in Cohomotopy cohomology theory. To further check this "Hypothesis H", here we explicitly compute the constraints on fractional D-brane charges at…

Gravity duals for little string theories --- which give rise to four-dimensional theories that undergo permanent confinement in the infrared --- have not been studied in great detail. We address this question in the framework of heterotic…