Related papers: Magics of M-gravity
This is an expanded version of talks given by the author at the Trieste Spring School on Supergravity and Superstrings in April of 1997 and at the accompanying workshop. The manuscript is intended to be a mini-review of Matrix Theory. The…
This contribution gives a personal view on recent attempts to find a unified framework for non-perturbative string theories, with special emphasis on the hidden symmetries of supergravity and their possible role in this endeavor. A…
Which theories have a higher dimensional origin in String/M-theory is a non trivial question and it is still far from being understood in the constrained scenario of maximal supergravities. After 35 years of progress in this direction we…
The fortieth anniversary of the original construction of Supergravity provides an opportunity to combine some reminiscences of its early days with an assessment of its impact on the quest for a quantum theory of gravity.
We compactify four-dimensional N=1 gauged supergravity theories on a circle including fluxes for shift-symmetric scalars. Four-dimensional Taub-NUT gravitational instantons universally correct the three-dimensional superpotential in the…
Membrane scattering in m(atrix) theory is related to dynamics in three-dimensional $SU(2)$ gauge theory, with transfer of $p^{11}$ being an instanton process. We calculate the instanton amplitude and find precise agreement with the…
Recent developments in string and M theory rely heavily on supersymmetry suggesting that a revival of superspace techniques in ten and eleven dimensions may be advantageous. Here we discuss three topics of current interest where superspace…
We give a general review of extended supergravities and their gauging using the duality-covariant embedding tensor formalism. Although the focus is on four-dimensional theories, an overview of the gauging procedure and the related tensor…
Gravitation has posed a puzzle and a problem for many decades. Attempts to unify it with other fundamental interactions have failed. These problems and puzzles have been underscored by the likes of Witten and Weinberg. We survey this and…
The complete supersymmetric action for eleven-dimensional supergravity is presented. The action is polynomial in the scalar fermionic pure spinor superfield, and contains only a minor modification to the recently proposed three-point…
In these notes Yang-Mills theories in 1+1 dimensions are reviewed. Instantons on a sphere prove to be -in the decompactification limit- the key issue to clarify an old controversy between equal-time and light-front quantization.
In discussing the construction of a consistent theory of quantum gravity unified with the gauge interactions we are naturally led to a string theory. We review its properties and the five consistent supersymmetric string theories in ten…
We construct a generalized BF theory in superspace that can embed eleven-dimensional supergravity theory. Our topological BF theory can accommodate all the necessary Bianchi identities for teleparallel superspace supergravity in…
We present a general `off-shell' description of the effective N=1 supergravity describing the low-energy limit of M-theory compactified on (Calabi-Yau) x S1/Z2. In our formulation, the M-theory Bianchi identities are imposed by the…
Some recent results in the study of four dimensional supergravity flux compactifications are reviewed, discussing in particular the role of torsion on the compactification manifold in generating gauge charges for the effective four…
The status of accelerating four-dimensional universes obtained by time-dependent compactifications of 10 or 11 dimensional supergravity is reviewed, as is the `no-go' theorem that they evade. All flat cosmologies for a simple exponential…
This diploma thesis has three major objectives. Firstly, we give an elementary introduction to M-theory compactifications, which are obtained from an analysis of its low-energy effective theory, eleven-dimensional supergravity. In…
We demonstrate the precise numerical correspondence between long range scattering of supergravitons and membranes in supergravity in the infinite momentum frame and in M(atrix)-Theory, both in 11 dimensions and for toroidal…
In this paper we study the scattering of gravitons off a five orientifold in eleven dimensions. We compare the supergravity result with a two loop M(atrix) model calculation and find exact agreement. The supergravity calculation involves…
An introduction to the instanton formalism in supersymmetric gauge theories is given. We explain how the instanton calculations, in conjunction with analyticity in chiral parameters and other general properties following from supersymmetry,…