Related papers: Duality, gauging and superHiggs effect in string a…
A mechanism is presented through which very light scalar degrees of freedom obeying the nonlinear sigma model equation can emerge in spontaneously broken gauge theories. The mechanism operates in extra dimensional theories in which a) there…
A rich pattern of gauge symmetries is found in the moduli space of heterotic string toroidal compactifications, at fixed points of the T-duality transformations. We analyze this pattern for generic tori, and scrutinize in full detail…
We investigate the lifting of half-maximal four-dimensional gauged supergravities to compactifications of string theory. It is shown that a class of such supergravities can arise from compactifications of IIA string theory on manifolds of…
Compactifications in duality covariant constructions such as generalised geometry and double field theory have proven to be suitable frameworks to reproduce gauged supergravities containing non-geometric fluxes. However, it is a priori…
We review a duality procedure that relates standard matter-coupled N=1 supergravity to dual formulations in which auxiliary fields are replaced by field-strengths of gauge three-forms. As examples, we consider the dualization of the rigid…
Using a recently proposed group-theoretical approach, we explore novel gaugings of maximal supergravity in four dimensions with gauge group embeddings that can be generated by fluxes of IIB string theory. The corresponding potentials are…
Gauge/gravity duality is the conjecture that string theories have dual descriptions as gauge theories. Weakly-coupled gravity is dual to strongly-coupled gauge theories, ideal for lattice calculations. I will show precision lattice…
We apply duality transformation to the Abelian Higgs model in 3+1 dimensions in the presence of electrons coupled to the gauge field. The Higgs field is in the symmetry broken phase, where flux strings can form. Dualization brings in an…
We discuss recent results on the interpretation of flux compactifications on certain Type IIB orientifolds in terms of gauged N-extended supergravities of no--scale type.
We study compactifications of string theory and M-theory to six dimensions with background fluxes. The nonzero fluxes lead to additional mass parameters. We derive the S- and T-duality rules for the corresponding (massive) supergravity…
In an ungauged supergravity theory, the presence of a \emph{scalar potential} is allowed only for the minimal $\N=1$ case. In extended supergravities, a non-trivial scalar potential can be introduced without explicitly breaking…
Double Field Theory describes the NS-NS sector of string theory and lives on a doubled spacetime. The theory has a local gauge symmetry generated by a generalization of the Lie derivative for doubled coordinates. For the action to be…
This PhD thesis investigates several aspects of nonabelian higher gauge theories, which appear in many areas of physics, notably string theory and gauged supergravity. We show that nonabelian higher gauge theory admits a consistent…
We propose a universal geometric formulation of gauged supergravity in terms of a twisted doubled torus. We focus on string theory (M-theory) reductions with generalized Scherk-Schwarz twists residing in the O(n,n) (E_{7(7)}) duality group.…
We shall review a novel formulation of four dimensional gauged supergravity which is manifestly covariant with respect to the non-perturbative electric-magnetic duality symmetry transformations of the ungauged theory, at the level of the…
We find necessary and sufficient conditions for gauge invariance of the action of Double Field Theory (DFT) as well as closure of the algebra of gauge symmetries. The so-called weak and strong constraints are sufficient to satisfy them, but…
We provide an explicit example of how the string winding modes can be incorporated in double field theory. Our guiding case is the closed bosonic string compactified on a circle of radius close to the self-dual point, where some modes with…
We study the relationship between M theory on a nearly lightlike circle and U(N) gauge theory in p+1 dimensions. We define large N limits of these theories in which low energy supergravity is valid. The regularity of these limits implies an…
The four dimensional gauged supergravities descending from non-geometric string compactifications involve a wide class of flux objects which are needed to make the theory invariant under duality transformations at the effective level.…
Recently interest in using generalized reductions to construct massive supergravity theories has been revived in the context of M-theory and superstring theory. These compactifications produce mass parameters by introducing a linear…