Related papers: Lectures on Heterotic M-Theory
We study various aspects of N=2 quiver-Chern-Simons theories, conjectured to be dual to M2-branes at toric Calabi-Yau four-fold singularities, under Higgsing. In particular we study in detail the orbifold C^4/Z_2^3, obtaining a number of…
We discuss low-energy heterotic M-theory with five-branes in four and five dimensions and its application to moving brane cosmology.
We consider M-theory in the presence of M parallel M5-branes probing a transverse A_{N-1} singularity. This leads to a superconformal theory with (1,0) supersymmetry in six dimensions. We compute the supersymmetric partition function of…
We present a toy model for five-dimensional heterotic M-theory where bulk three-branes, originating in 11 dimensions from M five-branes, are modelled as kink solutions of a bulk scalar field theory. It is shown that the vacua of this defect…
We explicitly construct soliton solutions in the low energy description of M-theory on S^1/Z_2. It is shown that the 11-dimensional membrane is a BPS solution of this theory if stretched between the Z_2 hyperplanes. A similar statement…
We develop the concept of supersymmetry in singular spaces, apply it in an example for 3-branes in D=5 and comment on 8-branes in D=10. The new construction has an interpretation that the brane is a sink for the flux and requires adding to…
A key open problem in M-theory is the mechanism of "gauge enhancement", which supposedly makes M-branes exhibit the nonabelian gauge degrees of freedom that are seen perturbatively in the limit of 10d string theory. In fact, since only the…
We show how to cast an interacting system of M--branes into manifestly gauge-invariant form using an arrangement of higher-dimensional Dirac surfaces. Classical M--theory has a cohomologically nontrivial and noncommutative set of gauge…
We present a 6D orbifold model on $T^2/\Z2$ which emerges as intermediate step in the compactification of the heterotic string to the supersymmetric standard model in four dimensions. It has $\SU6$ gauge symmetry in the bulk and two pairs…
We construct new supersymmetric $\mathrm{AdS}_2\times \mathbb{M}_4$ solutions of $D=6$ gauged supergravity, where $\mathbb{M}_4$ are certain four-dimensional orbifolds. After uplifting to massive type IIA supergravity these correspond to…
Compactifications of the physical superstring to two dimensions provide a general template for realizing 2D conformal field theories coupled to worldsheet gravity, i.e. non-critical string theories. Motivated by this observation, in this…
There are fundamental open problems in the precise global nature of RR-field tadpole cancellation conditions in string theory. Moreover, the non-perturbative lift as M5/MO5-anomaly cancellation in M-theory had been based on indirect…
We study the dynamics of M-theory on isolated non-toric Calabi-Yau threefold singularities of type $(A_j,A_l)$ and $(A_k,D_n)$, engineering five-dimensional rank-zero SCFTs. Our approach consists in mapping these backgrounds to type IIA…
We review cosmological solutions of type II superstrings and M-theory, emphasizing the role of non-vanishing Ramond form backgrounds. Compactifications on flat and, more generally, maximally symmetric spatial subspaces are presented. We…
This paper constructs the reduction of heterotic $M$-theory in eleven dimensions to a supergravity model on a manifold with boundary in five dimensions using a Calabi-Yau three-fold. New results are presented for the boundary terms in the…
We describe heterotic string and M-theory realizations of the Randall-Sundrum (RS) scenario with $\cx N=2$ and $\cx N=1$ supersymmetry in the bulk. Supersymmetry can be broken only on the world brane, a scenario that has been proposed to…
We cast M-brane interactions including intersecting membranes and five-branes in manifestly gauge invariant form using an arrangement of higher dimensional Dirac surfaces. We show that the noncommutative gauge symmetry present in the…
We review M-theory description of 4d N=2 SQCD. Configurations of M-theory fivebranes relevant to describe the moduli spaces of the Coulomb and Higgs branches are studied using the Taub-NUT geometry. Minimal area membranes related with the…
Strongly coupled heterotic $E_8\times E_8$ string theory, compactified to four dimensions on a large Calabi-Yau manifold ${\bf X}$, may represent a viable candidate for the description of low-energy particle phenomenology. In this regime,…
In this work, we significantly expand the web of T-dualities among heterotic NS5-brane theories with eight supercharges. This is achieved by introducing twists involving outer automorphisms of discrete gauge/flavor factors and tensor…