Related papers: Open and Unoriented Strings from Topological Membr…
This review is devoted to open strings, and in particular to the often surprising features of their spectra. It follows and summarizes developments that took place mainly at the University of Rome ``Tor Vergata'' over the last decade, and…
We perform canonical quantization of open strings in the $D$-brane background with a $B$-field. Treating the mixed boundary condition as a primary constraint, we get a set of secondary constraints. Then these constraints are shown to be…
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…
We review the status of duality symmetries in superstring theories. These discrete symmetries mark the striking differences between theories of pointlike objects and theories of extended objects. They prove to be very helpful in…
We calculate the topological string partition function to all genus on the conifold, in the presence of branes. We demonstrate that the partition functions for different brane backgrounds (smoothly connected along a quantum corrected moduli…
We find the orbifold analog of the topological relation recently found by Freed and Witten which restricts the allowed D-brane configurations of Type II vacua with a topologically non-trivial flat $B$-field. The result relies in Douglas…
It is shown how two-dimensional states corresponding to D-branes arise in orbifolds of topologically massive gauge and gravity theories. Brane vertex operators naturally appear in induced worldsheet actions when the three-dimensional gauge…
We study bulk-boundary correlators in topological open membranes. The basic example is the open membrane with a WZ coupling to a 3-form. We view the bulk interaction as a deformation of the boundary string theory. This boundary string has…
Using the generalised AdS/CFT correspondence, we show that there are certain ten-dimensional differentiable manifolds such that string theory on such a manifold is unstable [to the emission of "large branes"] no matter what the metric may…
We study a geometric transition in non-perturbative topological string. We consider two cases. One is the geometric transition from the closed topological string on the local $\mathcal{B}_{3}$ to the closed topological string on the…
The first part of this thesis is a general introduction to the bosonic and fermionic string theory, to the concept of D brane and to string dualities. A discussion of anomalies cancellation closes the chapter. The second part of the thesis…
A non-supersymmetric ten-dimensional open string theory is constructed as an orbifold of type I string theory, and as an orientifold of the bosonic type B theory. It is purely bosonic, and cancellation of massless tadpoles requires the…
M(atrix) theory on an orbifold and classical two-branes therein are studied with particular emphasis to heterotic M(atrix) theory on $S_1/Z_2$ relevant to strongly coupled heterotic and dual Type IA string theories. By analyzing orbifold…
We establish a translation dictionary between open and closed strings, starting from open string field theory. Under this correspondence, (off-shell) level-matched closed string states are represented by star algebra projectors in open…
We study closed N=2 strings on orbifolds of the form T^4/Z_2 and C^2/Z_2. We compute the torus partition function and prove its modular invariance. We analyse the BRST cohomology of the theory, construct the vertex operators, and compute…
We study some aspects of the recently discovered connection between dimer models and D-brane gauge theories. We argue that dimer models are also naturally related to closed string theories on non compact orbifolds of $\BC^2$ and $\BC^3$,…
The T-duality transformations between open and closed superstrings in different D-manifolds are generalized to curved backgrounds with commuting isometries. We address some global aspects like the occurrence of orientifold boundaries in…
Symmetry Theories (SymThs) provide a flexible framework for analyzing the global categorical symmetries of a $D$-dimensional QFT$_{D}$ in terms of a $(D+1)$-dimensional bulk system SymTh$_{D+1}$. In QFTs realized via local string…
We discuss the role played by the divergences appearing in the interaction between a fractional D3 brane dressed with an SU(N) gauge field and a stack of N fractional D3 branes on the orbifolds C^2/Z_2 and C^3/(Z_2 x Z_2). In particular we…
Nonperturbative corrections in type II string theory corresponding to Riemann surfaces with one boundary are calculated in several noncompact geometries of desingularized orbifolds. One of these models has a complicated phase structure…