Related papers: Orbifolds as Melvin Geometry
We present special classes of orientifold models involving supersymmetry breaking via branes at angles. Type II superstring theories are compactified on a two torus times a four-dimensional orbifold. Combining worldsheet parity with a…
We make the observation that M-brane models defined in terms of 3-algebras can be interpreted as higher gauge theories involving Lie 2-groups. Such gauge theories arise in particular in the description of non-abelian gerbes. This…
In this work we investigate a largely unexplored non-geometric corner of the string landscape: the quasicrystalline orbifolds. These exist at special points of the Narain moduli leading to frozen moduli and large quantum symmetries. Here we…
We construct a covariant description of non-critical superstrings in even dimensions. We construct explicitly supersymmetric hybrid type variables in a linear dilaton background, and study an underlying N=2 twisted superconformal algebra…
In this article we review the conditions for the validity of the gauge/gravity correspondence in both supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric string models. We start by reminding what happens in type IIB theory on the orbifolds C^2/Z_2 and…
Starting from certain 3D non-abelian dual systems, we discuss a number of related dual systems in 2D, some of which are obtained by dimensional reduction. The dualities relate massive scalar and vector fields, and may be relevant for string…
We study partially supersymmetric plane-wave like deformations of string theories and M-theory on brane backgrounds. These deformations are dual to nonlocal field theories. We calculate various expectation values of configurations of closed…
We study conformal field theories for strings propagating on compact, seven-dimensional manifolds with G_2 holonomy. In particular, we describe the construction of rational examples of such models. We argue that analogues of Gepner models…
In this paper, we consider solutions and spectral functions of M-theory from Milne spaces with extra free dimensions. Conformal deformations to the metric associated with the real hyperbolic space forms are derived. For the…
We study a class of four-dimensional N=1 heterotic string theories which have nontrivial quantum dynamics arising from asymptotically free gauge groups. These models are obtained by orbifolding 4d N=2 heterotic/type II dual pairs by…
We find new type II backgrounds with non-relativistic symmetries via non-Abelian T-duality. First we consider geometries with Galilean symmetries in type IIA, which have been identified as non-relativistic generalizations of the ABJM…
Non-degenerate bilinear forms over fields of characteristic 2, in particular, non-symmetric ones, are classified with respect to various equivalences, and the Lie algebras preserving them are described. Although it is known that there are…
We present a string theoretical description, given in terms of branes and orientifolds wrapping vanishing cycles, of the dual pairs of gauge theories analyzed in 1210.7799. Based on the resulting construction we argue that the duality that…
We identify a deformation of the N=2 supersymmetric sigma model on a Calabi-Yau manifold X which has the same effect on B-branes as a noncommutative deformation of X. We show that for hyperkahler X such deformations allow one to interpolate…
We study various aspects of orientifold projections of Type IIB closed string theory on Gepner points in different dimensions. The open string sector is introduced, in the usual constructive way, in order to cancel RR charges carried by…
We show how to implement T-duality along non-abelian isometries in backgrounds with non-vanishing Ramond fields. When the dimension of the isometry group is odd (even) the duality swaps (preserves) the chirality of the theory. In certain…
We investigate nonsupersymmetric $\BC^4/\BZ_N$ orbifold singularities using their description in terms of the string worldsheet conformal field theory and its close relation with the toric geometry description of these singularities and…
In the fruitful interplay between gauge fields and strings and in many conjectured M-theory dualities, open strings play a prominent role. We review the construction of open-string descendants (un-orientifolds) of closed-string theories…
Axions, periodic scalar fields coupled to gauge fields through the instanton density, have a rich variety of higher-form global symmetries. These include a two-form global symmetry, which measures the charge of axion strings. As we review,…
We classify orbifold geometries which can be interpreted as moduli spaces of four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}\geq 3$ superconformal field theories up to rank 2 (complex dimension 6). The large majority of the geometries we find correspond to…