Related papers: Gauge fields-strings duality and tensionless super…
We discuss the relationship between target space modular invariance and discrete gauge symmetries in four-dimensional orbifold-like strings. First we derive the modular transformation properties of various string vertex operators of the…
We study open and closed string interactions in the Type IIB plane wave background using open+closed string field theory. We reproduce all string amplitudes from the dual N=2 Sp(N) gauge theory by computing matrix elements of the dilatation…
Gauge symmetries emerge from a redundant description of the effective action for light degrees of freedom after the decoupling of heavy modes. This redundant description avoids the use of explicit constraints in configuration space. For…
Based on a model of the d=3 SU(2) pure gauge theory vacuum as a monopole-vortex condensate, we give a quantitative (if model-dependent) estimate of the relation between the string tension and a gauge-invariant measure of the Chern-Simons…
We systematically analyse weak coupling limits for 2-form tensor fields in the presence of gravity. Such limits are significant for testing various versions of the Weak Gravity and Swampland Distance Conjectures, and more broadly, the…
The loop representation of quantum gravity has many formal resemblances to a background-free string theory. In fact, its origins lie in attempts to treat the string theory of hadrons as an approximation to QCD, in which the strings…
In this review I discuss some basic aspects of non-perturbative string theory. The topics include test of duality symmetries based on the analysis of the low energy effective action and the spectrum of BPS states, relationship between…
It is an old speculation that SU(N) gauge theory can alternatively be formulated as a string theory. Recently this subject has been revived, in the wake of the discovery of D-branes. In particular, it has been argued that at least some…
Results about the phase structure of certain N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories, which have been obtained as a consequence of holomorphy and `electric-magnetic' duality, are shown to be in quantitative agreement with corresponding…
We discuss dark energy, dark matter and the hierarchy problem in the context of a general non-commutative formulation of string theory. In this framework dark energy is generated by the dynamical geometry of the dual spacetime while dark…
Double field theory describes a massless subsector of closed string theory with both momentum and winding excitations. The gauge algebra is governed by the Courant bracket in certain subsectors of this double field theory. We construct the…
We study a $U(N)$-invariant vector+matrix chain with the color structure of a lattice gauge theory with quarks and interpret it as a theory of open andclosed strings with target space $\Z$. The string field theory is constructed as a…
In the presence of a static quark--antiquark pair, the spectrum of the low-lying states in SU($N$) gauge theories is discrete and likely to be described, at large quark separations $r$, by an effective string theory. The expansion of the…
We report on numerical simulations of one dimensional maximally supersymmetric SU(N) Yang-Mills theory, by using the lattice action with two exact supercharges. Based on the gauge/gravity duality, the gauge theory corresponds to N D0-branes…
The gauge/gravity duality provides us with nonperturbative formulation of superstring/M-theory. Although inputs from gauge theory side are crucial for answering many deep questions associated with quantum gravitational aspects of…
New S-dualities in a scale invariant N=2 gauge theory with SU(2) x SU(2) gauge group are derived from embeddings of the theory in two different larger asymptotically free theories. The true coupling space of the scale invariant theory is a…
The black hole solutions to Einstein's vacuum field equations are also solutions to the equations of motion of the low energy limit of superstring theory. At the same time, string theory boasts a much broader and richer collection of black…
The duality cascade, and its dual description as string theory on the warped deformed conifold, brings together several sophisticated topics, some of which are not widely known. These lectures, which contain a number of previously…
A correspondence between type IIB string theory with N D7-branes on R^{1,3} x C^1/Z_2 x T^2/Z_2 x T^2/Z_2 and pure N=1 SU(N) gauge theory in four dimensions is proposed and argued. First the supergravity background of unwrapped and flat…
The crossover transition from weak coupling at large \xi to strong coupling at small \xi is studied in N=2 supersymmetric gauge theory with the U(N) gauge group and N_f>N (here \xi is the Fayet--Iliopoulos parameter). We find that at strong…