Related papers: Penrose Limits, the Colliding Plane Wave Problem a…
The geometry of twisted null geodesic congruences in gravitational plane wave spacetimes is explored, with special focus on homogeneous plane waves. The role of twist in the relation of the Rosen coordinates adapted to a null congruence…
Employing the Newman-Penrose formalism and following the classic Teukolsky-like approach, we linearise the field equations of quadratic gravity on the Kerr background and combine them with the linearised Ricci and Bianch identities. This…
We formulate WZW models based on a centrally extended version of the Euclidean group in $d$-dimensions. We obtain string backgrounds corresponding to conformal $\s$-models in $D=d^2$ space-time dimensions with exact central charge $c=d^2$…
A 1/2-BPS family of time dependent plane wave spacetimes which give rise to exactly solvable string backgrounds is presented. In particular a solution which interpolates between Minkowski spacetime and the maximally supersymmetric…
Understanding the behaviour of linear waves on black hole backgrounds is a central problem in general relativity, intimately connected with the nonlinear stability of the black hole spacetimes themselves as solutions to the Einstein…
We conduct a review of the basic definitions and the principal results in the study of wavelike spacetimes, that is spacetimes whose metric models massless radiation moving at the speed of light, focusing in particular on those geometries…
The quantization of circular strings in an anti-de Sitter background spacetime is performed, obtaining a discrete spectrum for the string mass. A comparison with a four-dimensional homogeneous and isotropic spacetime coupled to a conformal…
We demonstrate that the Penrose inequality is valid for spherically symmetric geometries even when the horizon is immersed in matter. The matter field need not be at rest. The only restriction is that the source satisfies the weak energy…
We review explicitly known exact $D=4$ solutions with Minkowski signature in closed bosonic string theory. Classical string solutions with space-time interpretation are represented by conformal sigma models. Two large (intersecting) classes…
We study rigidly rotating strings in the near horizon geometry of the 1+1 dimensional intersection of two orthogonal stacks of NS5-branes, the so called I-brane background. We solve the equations of motion of the fundamental string action…
In string theory, an important challenge is to show if the singularity of black holes can be smoothed out by the complete $\alpha^{\prime}$ corrections. The simplest case is to consider a 2D string black hole or 3D black string. This…
This thesis considers two different aspects of string theory, the tensionless limit of the string and supersymmetric sigma models. The tensionless limit is used to find a IIB supergravity background generated by a tensionless string.…
We review different exact approaches to string theory. In the context of the Green-Schwarz superstring, we discuss the action in curved backgrounds and its supercoset formulation, with particular attention to superstring backgrounds of the…
We construct the Penrose limit backgrounds in closed forms along the generic null geodesics for the near-horizon geometries of D1, D3, D5, NS1 and NS5 branes. The Penrose limit metrics of D1, D5 and NS1 have non-trivial dependence of the…
A way to break supersymmetry in perturbative superstring theory is the string version of the Scherk-Schwarz mechanism. There, the fermions and bosons have mass splitting due to different compactification boundary conditions. We consider the…
We conjecture a family of matrix quantum mechanical models that are holographically dual to discrete light-cone quantization of M-theory in pp-wave-like backgrounds. These backgrounds can be obtained from a Penrose limit of AdS$_4\times…
After reviewing the $\beta$-function equations for consistent string backgrounds in the $\sigma$-model approach, including metric and antisymmetric tensor, dilaton and tachyon potential, we apply this formalism to WZW models. We…
We study the Penrose limit of Type IIB duals of softly broken N=1 SU(N) gauge theories in four dimensions, obtained as deformations of the Maldacena-Nunez and Klebanov-Strassler backgrounds. We extract the string spectrum on the resulting…
We present a general discussion of strings propagating on noncompact coset spaces $G/H$ in terms of gauged WZW models, emphasizing the role played by isometries in the existence of target space duality. Fixed points of the gauged…
We study string theory on $\mathrm{AdS}_3$ backgrounds with mixed flux using the hybrid formalism of Berkovits, Vafa and Witten. We solve the worldsheet description of the theory completely in the plane-wave limit. This constitutes a direct…