Related papers: Topics on Strings, Branes and Calabi-Yau Compactif…
This article is the PhD thesis of the author. It is focused on Type II compactifications because of the potential for the construction of realistic MSSM-like compactifications. In particular we concentrate in Type IIB Calabi-Yau…
In this thesis we discuss non-perturbative phenomena emerging in gauge and in string/supergravity theories. We compute the partition function of 5D minimal supersymmetric U(1) gauge theory with extra adjoint matter in general…
We consider 4d N=1 theories arising from F-theory compactifications on elliptically-fibered Calabi-Yau four-folds and investigate the non-perturbative structure of their scalar field space beyond the large volume/large complex structure…
We compactify $M$-theory on a Calabi-Yau manifold to five dimensions by wrapping the membrane and fivebrane solitons of the eleven-dimensional supergravity limit around Calabi-Yau two-cycles and four-cycles respectively. We identify the…
We study limits of four-dimensional type II Calabi-Yau compactifications with vanishing four-cycle singularities, which are dual to $\IT^2$ compactifications of the six-dimensional non-critical string with $E_8$ symmetry. We define proper…
The motivation for Calabi-Yau-like compactifications of the weakly coupled $E_8\otimes E_8$ heterotic string theory, its particle spectrum and the issue of dilaton stabilization are briefly reviewed. Modular invariant models for hidden…
In this dissertation, we study various aspects of type IIB string theory compactified on freely acting orbifolds. We focus particularly on asymmetric orbifolds, which are examples of non-geometric string compactifications and constitute an…
These lectures, given at the Chinese Academy of Sciences for the BeiJing/HangZhou International Summer School in Mathematical Physics, are intended to introduce, to the beginning student in string theory and mathematical physics, aspects of…
We discuss the recent proposal that BPS D-branes in Calabi-Yau compactification of type II string theory are Pi-stable objects in the derived category of coherent sheaves.
It is shown that any anisotropic and inhomogeneous cosmological solution to the lowest-order, four-dimensional, dilaton-graviton string equations of motion may be employed as a seed to derive a curved, three-brane cosmological solution to…
This review talk focusses on some of the interesting developments in the area of superstring compactification that have occurred in the last couple of years. These include the discovery that ``mirror symmetric" pairs of Calabi--Yau spaces,…
$\mathcal{G}$-structures, where $\mathcal{G}$ is a Lie group, are a uniform characterisation of many differential geometric structures of interest in supersymmetric compactifications of string theories. Calabi-Yau $n$-folds are instances of…
We review recent progress in the construction of four-dimensional vacua of Type II string theory and F-theory which yield the Standard Model of particle physics (SM) or extensions thereof. In Type II orientifold compactifications the SM…
We consider freely acting orbifold compactifications, which interpolate in two possible decompactification limits between the supersymmetric type II string and the non-supersymmetric type 0 string. In particular we discuss how D-branes are…
Four-dimensional compactifications of string theory provide a controlled set of possible gauge representations accounting for BSM particles and dark sector components. In this review, constraints from perturbative Type II string…
We review recent work identifying soft SUSY-breaking terms in local type II string models with branes and magnetic fluxes. We then make a new observation about the configuration space of D-branes in Calabi-Yau backgrounds, and identify vevs…
We investigate special compactifications of the heterotic string for which the space of half-BPS states is, in a natural way, a representation of various subgroups of the Conway group. These compactifications provide a useful framework for…
After a short introduction to Matrix theory, we explain how can one generalize matrix models to describe toroidal compactifications of M-theory and the heterotic vacua with 16 supercharges. This allows us, for the first time in history, to…
We study the mechanism for appearance of massless solitons in type II string compactifications. We find that by combining $T$-duality with strong/weak duality of type IIB in 10 dimensions enhanced gauge symmetries and massless solitonic…
The non-perturbative dynamics of quantum field theories is studied using theoretical tools inspired by string formalism. Two main lines are developed: the analysis of stringy instantons in a class of four-dimensional N=2 gauge theories and…