Related papers: Worldsheet of the discrete light front string
We give a mathematical perspective on string compactifications. Submitted as a chapter in the Encyclopedia of Mathematical Physics.
The physical motivations and the basic construction rules for Type I strings and M-theory compactifications are reviewed in light of the recent developments. The first part contains the basic theoretical ingredients needed for building…
We revisit the proposal of arXiv:2104.05716 for the worldsheet description of string theory compactifications on special holonomy manifolds obtained via connected sums: the geometric construction corresponds to a diamond of inclusions of…
We demonstrate how recent developments in string field theory provide a framework to systematically study type II flux compactifications with non-trivial Ramond-Ramond profiles. We present an explicit example where physical observables can…
These lecture notes give a pedagogical and (mostly) self-contained review of some basic aspects of the Matrix model of M-theory. The derivations of the model as a regularized supermembrane theory and as the discrete light-cone quantization…
Compactifications of the heterotic string are a viable route to phenomenologically realistic vacua and interesting new mathematics. While supergravity aspects of heterotic compactifications are largely well-understood their worldsheet…
We study worldsheet theory of confining strings in two-dimensional massive adjoint QCD. Similarly to confining strings in higher dimensions this theory exhibits a non-trivial $S$-matrix surviving even in the strict planar limit. In the…
We review recent work in which compactifications of string and M theory are constructed in which all scalar fields (moduli) are massive, and supersymmetry is broken with a small positive cosmological constant, features needed to reproduce…
In these lecture notes, an introduction to superstring theory is presented. Classical strings, covariant and light-cone quantization, supersymmetric strings, anomaly cancelation, compactification, T-duality, supersymmetry breaking, and…
We review some recent developments in the study of M-theory compactifications via Matrix theory. In particular we highlight the appearance of IIA strings and their interactions, and explain the unifying role of the M-theory five-brane for…
This article will appear in the Encyclopedia of Mathematical Physics (Elsevier, 2006) and follows its referencing guidelines.
We review some of the recent developments in the construction of $W$-string theories. These are generalisations of ordinary strings in which the two-dimensional ``worldsheet'' theory, instead of being a gauging of the Virasoro algebra, is a…
Fractional superstrings experience new types of ``internal projections'' which alter or deform their underlying worldsheet conformal field theories. In this talk I summarize some recent results concerning both the worldsheet theory which…
In perturbative quantum field theory the limit of compactification on an almost light-like circle has recently been shown to be plagued by divergences. We argue that the light-like limit for M-theory probably is free of such divergences due…
We propose a two-dimensional superstring sigma model that defines a self-contained corner of heterotic string theory, whose second quantization is heterotic matrix string theory. This worldsheet theory arises from a BPS decoupling limit…
We study and extend the duality web unifying different decoupling limits of type II superstring theories and M-theory. We systematically build connections to different corners, such as Matrix theories, nonrelativistic string and M-theory,…
(Talk given at the Oskar Klein centenary symposium 19-21 September 1994 in Stockholm, Sweden, to appear in the proceedings.) The first half of this talk is a non-technical discussion of some general aspects of string theory, in particular…
We discuss discrete symmetries in several string compactification schemes. The same constraints on the light spectra as for Gepner models \cite{rosss} are found in various cases for non-$R$ symmetries. The analogous constraints for $R$…
The (bosonic) Virasoro minimal string, which relates worldsheet string theory to a deformation of the JT gravity matrix model, provides an interesting example of a tractable matrix/string duality. We explore its $\mathcal{N} =1$…
Despite recent evidence indicating the existence of a new kind of self-dual six-dimensional superstring, no satisfactory worldsheet formulation of such a string has been proposed. In this note we point out that a theory built from Z_4…