Related papers: String Junctions and Non-Simply Connected Gauge Gr…
In Grand Unified Theories (GUTs), the Standard Model (SM) gauge couplings need not be unified at the GUT scale due to the high-dimensional operators. Considering gravity mediated supersymmetry breaking, we study for the first time the…
The four-dimensional N=1 effective action of F-theory compactified on a Calabi-Yau fourfold is studied by lifting a three-dimensional M-theory compactification. The lift is performed by using T-duality realized via a Legendre transform on…
We investigate structural and rigidity properties of \emph{Lie skew braces} (LSBs), objects essentially known in the literature as \emph{post--Lie groups}, obtained by endowing a manifold with two compatible group laws that share the same…
We analyze the map between heterotic and type II N=2 supersymmetric string theories for certain two and three moduli examples found by Kachru and Vafa. The appearance of elliptic j-functions can be traced back to specializations of the…
We study the geometric engineering of gauge theories with gauge group Spin(4) and SO(4) using crepant resolutions of Weierstrass models. The corresponding elliptic fibrations realize a collision of singularities corresponding to two fibers…
We investigate gauge coupling unification for F-theory respectively Type IIB orientifold constructions of SU(5) GUT theories with gauge symmetry breaking via non-trivial hypercharge flux. This flux has the non-trivial effect that it splits…
In this dissertation we attempt to answer the question of whether non-abelian gauge groups occur in all F-theory models with Picard number 20 and with a Calabi-Yau four-fold CY4 K3xK3. To do so we employ the Kneser-Nishiyama method to study…
In this paper, we apply Borcea-Voisin's construction and give new examples of fourfolds containing a del Pezzo surface of degree six, which admit an elliptic fibration on a smooth threefold. Some of these fourfolds are Calabi-Yau varieties,…
We study fibrations in the category of cubespaces/nilspaces. We show that a fibration of finite degree $f \colon X\rightarrow Y$ between compact ergodic gluing cubespaces (in particular nilspaces) factors as a (possibly countable) tower of…
We consider Kaehler quantized models whose underlying classical phase space has a stratified structure induced from the Hamiltonian action of a compact Lie group. We show how to implement the classical stratification on the level of the…
We investigate the structure of the configuration space of gauge theories and its description in terms of the set of absolute minima of certain Morse functions on the gauge orbits. The set of absolute minima that is obtained when the…
We use compact D=4, N=1, Type IIB orientifolds as a testing ground for recent ideas about precocious gauge coupling unification and a low energy string scale. We find that certain such orientifolds have the interesting property that gauge…
We discuss aspects of global and gauged symmetries in quantum field theory and quantum gravity, focusing on discrete gauge symmetries. An effective Lagrangian description of $\Z_p$ gauge theories shows that they are associated with an…
Four-form flux in F-theory compactifications not only stabilizes moduli, but gives rise to ensembles of string vacua, providing a scientific basis for a stringy notion of naturalness. Of particular interest in this context is the ability to…
We give a constructive proof of the Hodge conjecture for complex $K3$ surfaces that does not rely on Torelli-type results. Starting with an arbitrary rational $(1,1)$-class $\alpha\in H^{1,1}(X,\mathbb{Q})$, we algorithmically build a…
We investigate a Gepner-like superstring model described by a combination of multiple minimal models and an N=2 Liouville theory. This model is thought to be equivalent to the superstring theory on a singular noncompact Calabi-Yau manifold.…
We explain the observation by Candelas and Font that the Dynkin diagrams of nonabelian gauge groups occurring in type IIA and F-theory can be read off from the polyhedron $\Delta^*$ that provides the toric description of the Calabi-Yau…
A bar-joint framework $(G,p)$ in a (non-Euclidean) real normed plane $X$ is the combination of a finite, simple graph $G$ and a placement $p$ of the vertices in $X$. A framework $(G,p)$ is globally rigid in $X$ if every other framework…
We discuss fractional D3-branes on the orbifold C^3/Z_2*Z_2. We study the open and the closed string spectrum on this orbifold. The corresponding N=1 theory on the brane has, generically, a U(N_1)*U(N_2)*U(N_3)*U(N_4) gauge group with…
We study four dimensional quiver gauge models from F-theory compactified on fourfolds with hyper-K\"{a}hler structure. Using intersecting complex toric surfaces, we derive a class of N=1 quivers with charged fundamental matter placed on…