Related papers: Open and Unoriented Strings from Topological Membr…

A discrete string theory --a theory of embeddings from ${\bf Z}\times {\bf Z}_C\to {\bf R}^D$, where $C$ is the number of components of the string-- is explored. The closure of the algebra of constraints (`${\bf Z}_C$-Virasoro algebra') is…

We use the BSFT method to study the unoriented open string field theory (type I). The partition function on the Mobius strip is calculated. We find that, at the one-loop level, the divergence coming from planar graph and unoriented graph…

Let M be a closed, oriented, n-dimensional manifold. In this paper we give a Morse theoretic description of the string topology operations introduced by Chas and Sullivan, and extended by the first author, Jones, Godin, and others. We do…

We study boundary conditions for the bosonic, spinning (NSR) and Green-Schwarz open string, as well as for 1+1 dimensional supergravity. We consider boundary conditions that arise from (1) extremizing the action, (2) BRST, rigid or local…

We consider the propagation of Type I open superstrings on orbifolds with four non-compact dimensions and $N=1$ supersymmetry. In this paper, we concentrate on a non-trivial Z_2xZ_2 example. We show that consistency conditions, arising from…

We give a non-perturbative completion of a class of closed topological string theories in terms of building blocks of dual open strings. In the specific case where the open string is given by a matrix model these blocks correspond to a…

We study geometric transitions for topological strings on compact Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in toric varieties. Large N duality predicts an equivalence between topological open and closed string theories connected by an extremal transition.…

We invoke universal Chern-Simons theory to analytically calculate the exact free energy of the refined topological string on the resolved conifold. In the unrefined limit we reproduce non-perturbative corrections for the resolved conifold…

We derive the masses acquired at one loop by massless scalars in the Neumann-Dirichlet sector of open strings, when supersymmetry is spontaneously broken. It is done by computing two-point functions of "boundary-changing vertex operators"…

We define a coalgebra structure for open strings transverse to any framed codimension 2 submanifold. When the submanifold is a knot in R^3, we show this structure recovers a specialization of the Ng cord algebra, a non-trivial knot…

This thesis is devoted to the construction and study of D-branes in some curved space-times in string theory. On the one hand, those D-branes are described geometrically as submanifolds subject to Born-Infeld effective dynamics. On the…

We generalize the construction of four dimensional non-tachyonic orientifolds of type 0B string theory to non-supersymmetric backgrounds. We construct a four dimensional model containing self-dual D3 and D9-branes and leading to a chiral…

We investigate asymmetric orbifold models constructed from non-supersymmetric heterotic strings. We systematically classify the asymmetric orbifold models with standard embeddings and present a list of asymmetric orbifolds which are…

Superstrings and topological strings with supermanifolds as target space play a central role in the recent developments in string theory. Nevertheless the rules for higher-genus computations are still unclear or guessed in analogy with…

We investigate the field theory of strings having as a target space an arbitrary discrete one-dimensional manifold. The existence of the continuum limit is guaranteed if the target space is a Dynkin diagram of a simply laced Lie algebra or…

We analyze topological string theory on a two dimensional torus, focusing on symmetries in the matter sector. Even before coupling to gravity, the topological torus has an infinite number of point-like physical observables, which give rise…

Starting from a previously collected set of tachyon-free closed strings, we search for N=2 minimal model orientifold spectra which contain the standard model and are free of tachyons and tadpoles at lowest order. For each class of…

We consider a class of conformal models describing closed strings in axially symmetric stationary magnetic flux tube backgrounds. These models are closed string analogs of the Landau model of a particle in a magnetic field or the model of…

We study the null orbifold singularity in 2+1 d flat space higher spin theory as well as string theory. Using the Chern-Simons formulation of 2+1 d Einstein gravity, we first observe that despite the singular nature of this geometry, the…

The three-dimensional topologies of the membrane of M-theory can be constructed by performing Dehn surgery along knot lines. We investigate membranes wrapped around a circle and the correponding subset of topologies (Seifert manifolds). The…