Related papers: Superstrings and Topological Strings at Large N
We exhibit exact conformal field theory descriptions of SO(N) and Sp(N) pairs of Seiberg-dual gauge theories within string theory. The N=1 gauge theories with flavour are realized as low energy limits of the worldvolume theories on D-branes…
We study the Nekrasov-Shatashvili limit of the N=2 supersymmetric gauge theory and topological string theory on certain local toric Calabi-Yau manifolds. In this limit one of the two deformation parameters \epsilon_{1,2} of the Omega…
We discuss in detail the $1+1$-dimensional superconformal field theory dual to type II string theory on $AdS_3\times S^3\times T^4$, emphasizing the string theoretic aspects of this duality. For one unit of NS-NS 5-brane flux ($Q_5=1$),…
The string landscape satisfies interesting finiteness properties imposed by supersymmetry and string-theoretical consistency conditions. We study N=1 supersymmetric compactifications of Type IIB string theory on smooth elliptically fibered…
In this article we review four-dimensional string vacua with N=2 space-time supersymmetry. In particular, we will discuss several aspects of the string-string duality between the heterotic string, compactified on $K3\times T^2$, and the…
We consider a class of super-conformal beta-deformed N=1 gauge theories dual to string theory on $AdS_5 \times X$ with fluxes, where $X$ is a deformed Sasaki-Einstein manifold. The supergravity backgrounds are explicit examples of…
We show how Higgs mechanism for non-abelian N=2 gauge theories in four dimensions is geometrically realized in the context of type II strings as transitions among compactifications of Calabi-Yau threefolds. We use this result and T-duality…
Dvali and Shifman have proposed a field-theoretic mechanism for localizing gauge fields to "branes" in higher dimensional spaces using confinement in a bulk gauge theory. The resulting objects have a number of qualitative features in common…
It was shown in hep-th/0301099 that the leading UV/IR mixing effects in noncommutative gauge theories on D-branes are able to capture information about the closed string spectrum of the parent string theory. The analysis was carried out for…
I discuss tree-level amplitudes in cubic topological string field theory, showing that a certain family of gauge conditions leads to an A-infty algebra of tree-level string products which define a potential describing the dynamics of…
Compactifications of the physical superstring to two dimensions provide a general template for realizing 2D conformal field theories coupled to worldsheet gravity, i.e. non-critical string theories. Motivated by this observation, in this…
We consider compactifications of the matrix model of M-theory on $S^1/Z_2\times T^d$ for $d>0$, and interpret them as orbifolds of the supersymmetric U(N) Yang-Mills theory on $R\times T^{d+1}$. The orbifold group acts both on the gauge…
We propose a new way of using geometric transitions to study metastable vacua in string theory and certain confining gauge theories. The gauge theories in question are N=2 supersymmetric theories deformed to N=1 by superpotential terms. We…
String theories with (N,N') local world-sheet supersymmetries are related to each other by marginal deformations. This connects N=1 and N=0 theories in which the target-spaces are interpreted as space-times, N=2 theories in which the target…
Starting from an N=1 supersymmetric electric gauge theory with the multiple product gauge group and the bifundamentals, we apply Seiberg dual to each gauge group, obtain the N=1 supersymmetric dual magnetic gauge theories with dual matters…
We construct an N=1 superconformal field theory using branes of type IIA string theory. The IIA construction is related via T-duality to a IIB configuration with 3-branes in a background generated by two intersecting O7-planes and 7-branes.…
In the fruitful interplay between gauge fields and strings and in many conjectured M-theory dualities, open strings play a prominent role. We review the construction of open-string descendants (un-orientifolds) of closed-string theories…
We report on progress towards the construction of SM-like gauge theories on the world-volume of D-branes at a Calabi-Yau singularity. In particular, we work out the topological conditions on the embedding of the singularity inside a compact…
We show that various holomorphic quantities in supersymmetric gauge theories can be conveniently computed by configurations of D4-branes and D6-branes. These D-branes intersect along a Riemann surface that is described by a holomorphic…
We show how enhanced gauge symmetry in type II string theory compactified on a Calabi--Yau threefold arises from singularities in the geometry of the target space. When the target space of the type IIA string acquires a genus $g$ curve $C$…