Related papers: N=1 Supersymmetry, Deconstruction, and Bosonic Gau…

We show that B-model topological strings on local Calabi-Yau threefolds are large N duals of matrix models, which in the planar limit naturally give rise to special geometry. These matrix models directly compute F-terms in an associated N=1…

We present several new examples of nontrivial 4d N=1 superconformal field theories. Some of these theories exhibit exotic global symmetries, including non-simply laced groups (such as $F_4$). They are obtained by studying threebrane probes…

We investigate orbifold and smooth Calabi-Yau compactifications of the non-supersymmetric heterotic SO(16)xSO(16) string. We focus on such Calabi-Yau backgrounds in order to recycle commonly employed techniques, like index theorems and…

We discuss five-dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories. An anomaly renders some theories inconsistent and others consistent only upon including a Wess-Zumino type Chern-Simons term. We discuss some necessary conditions for existence of…

We present the basic ideas of geometric engineering of the supersymmetric quantum field theories viewed as a low energy limit of type II strings and F-theory on singular Calabi Yau manifolds. We first give the main lines of toric geometry…

We consider a class of super-conformal beta-deformed N=1 gauge theories dual to string theory on $AdS_5 \times X$ with fluxes, where $X$ is a deformed Sasaki-Einstein manifold. The supergravity backgrounds are explicit examples of…

The subject of this thesis are various ways to construct four-dimensional quantum field theories from string theory. In a first part we study the generation of a supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, coupled to an adjoint chiral superfield,…

In Calabi-Yau fourfold compactifications of M-theory with flux, we investigate the possibility of partial supersymmetry breaking in the three-dimensional effective theory. To this end, we place the effective theory in the framework of…

In this work, we present a new geometric transition in non-compact Calabi-Yau 4-folds, specifically for the cone over the 7d Sasaki-Einstein manifold $Q^{\scriptscriptstyle(1,1,1)}/\mathbb{Z}_{N}$. We discover a new smoothing of such…

We elucidate the interplay between gauge and supersymmetry anomalies in six-dimensional $N=1$ supergravity with generalized couplings between tensor and vector multiplets. We derive the structure of the five-dimensional supergravity…

We construct several examples of (2+1) dimensional N=2 supersymmetric Chern-Simons theories, whose moduli space is given by non-compact toric Calabi-Yau four-folds, which are not derivable from any (3+1) dimensional CFT. One such example is…

We embed the large N Chern-Simons/topological string duality in ordinary superstrings. This corresponds to a large $N$ duality between generalized gauge systems with N=1 supersymmetry in 4 dimensions and superstrings propagating on…

We study four dimensional quiver gauge models from F-theory compactified on fourfolds with hyper-K\"{a}hler structure. Using intersecting complex toric surfaces, we derive a class of N=1 quivers with charged fundamental matter placed on…

We consider 3d N=1 M-theory compactifications on Calabi-Yau fourfolds, and the effective 3d theory of light modes obtained by reduction from eleven dimensions. We study in detail the mass spectrum at the vacuum and, by decoupling the…

We study the compactification of M-theory on Calabi-Yau five-folds and the resulting N=2 super-mechanics theories. By explicit reduction from 11 dimensions, including both bosonic and fermionic terms, we calculate the one-dimensional…

We consider a deformation of N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories in four dimensions, which we call the C-deformation, where the gluino field satisfies a Clifford-like algebra dictated by a self-dual two-form, instead of the standard…

We study aspects of Calabi-Yau four-folds as compactification manifolds of F-theory, using mirror symmetry of toric hypersurfaces. Correlation functions of the topological field theory are determined directly in terms of a natural ring…

We discuss how N=1 dualities in four dimensions are geometrically realized by wrapping D-branes about 3-cycles of Calabi-Yau threefolds. In this setup the N=1 dualities for SU, SO and USp gauge groups with fundamental fields get mapped to…

Three dimensional N=2 gauge theories with arbitrary gauge group and fundamental flavors are engineered from degenerations of Calabi-Yau four-folds. We show how Coulomb and Higgs branches emerge in the geometric picture. The analysis of…

We point out two extensions of the relation between matrix models, topological strings and N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories. First, we note that by considering double scaling limits of unitary matrix models one can obtain large N duals of…