Related papers: Superstrings and Topological Strings at Large N
We investigate the holographic correspondence between (p+1)-dimensional ($0\le p\le 4$) SYM theories with 16 supercharges and superstring theories on the near-horizon limit of Dp-brane backgrounds. Following an approach based on the…
We study pairs of planar D-branes intersecting on null hypersurfaces, and other related configurations. These are supersymmetric and have finite energy density. They provide open-string analogues of the parabolic orbifold and null-fluxbrane…
We study a class of ${\cal N}=(1,0)$ little string theories obtained from orbifolds of M-brane configurations. These are realised in two different ways that are dual to each other: either as $M$ parallel M5-branes probing a transverse…
We introduce a new class of non-compact backgrounds of Type IIB string theory preserving eight supercharges by combining S-folds and non-perturbative 7-branes wrapping orbifolds, and study the four-dimensional superconformal field theories…
We study the topological string on compact Calabi-Yau threefolds in the presence of orientifolds and D-branes. In examples, we find that the total topological string amplitude admits a BPS expansion only if the topological charge of the…
Brane Tilings represent one of the largest classes of superconformal theories with known gravity duals in 3+1 and also 2+1 dimensions. They provide a useful link between a large class of quiver gauge theories and their moduli spaces, which…
We review some aspects of the gravity duals of supersymmetric gauge theories, arising in the world-volume of D-branes wrapping supersymmetric cycles of special holonomy manifolds, within the framework of lower dimensional gauged…
We conjecture the existence of two new non-gravitational six-dimensional string theories, defined as the decoupling limit of NS5-branes in the background of near-critical electrical two- and three-form RR fields. These theories are…
We review an approach for computing non-perturbative, exact superpotentials for Type II strings compactified on Calabi-Yau manifolds, with extra fluxes and D-branes on top. The method is based on an open string generalization of mirror…
We show that refined Chern-Simons theory and large N duality can be used to study the refined topological string with and without branes. We derive the refined topological vertex of hep-th/0701156 and hep-th/0502061 from a link invariant of…
We outline a general geometric structure that underlies the N=1 superpotentials of a certain class of flux and brane configurations in type II string compactifications on Calabi-Yau threefolds. This ``holomorphic N=1 special geometry'' is…
We consider the compactification of the dual form of $N=1$ $D=10$ supergravity on a six-dimensional Calabi-Yau manifold. An $N=1$ off-shell supergravity effective Lagrangian in four dimensions can be constructed in a dual version of the…
This article is devoted to an overview of superstring perturbation theory from the point of view of super Riemann surfaces. We aim to elucidate some of the subtleties of superstring perturbation that caused difficulty in the early…
We prove that the open topological string partition function on a D-brane configuration in a Calabi-Yau manifold X takes the form of a closed topological string partition function on a different Calabi-Yau manifold X_b. This identification…
This paper lays groundwork for the detailed study of the non-trivial renormalization group flow connecting supersymmetric fixed points in four dimensions using string theory on AdS spaces. Specifically, we consider D3-branes placed at…
We consider the topological B-model on local Calabi-Yau geometries. We show how one can solve for the amplitudes by using W-algebra symmetries which encodes the symmetries of holomorphic diffeomorphisms of the Calabi-Yau. In the highly…
We study quantum effects in five dimensions in heterotic superstring theory compactified on K_3 x S_1 and analyze the conjecture that its dual effective theory is eleven-dimensional supergravity compactified on a Calabi-Yau threefold. This…
We study large N dualities for a general class of N=1 theories realized on type IIB D5 branes wrapping 2-cycles of local Calabi-Yau threefolds or as effective field theories on D4 branes in type IIA brane configurations. We completely solve…
The first part of this review tries to provide a self-contained view of supersymmetry breaking from the bottom-up perspective. We thus describe N=1 supersymmetry in four dimensions, the Standard Model and the MSSM, with emphasis on the…
We study the boundary states of D-branes wrapped around supersymmetric cycles in a general Calabi-Yau manifold. In particular, we show how the geometric data on the cycles are encoded in the boundary states. As an application, we analyze…