Related papers: Orientifolds, Unoriented Instantons and Localizati…
We consider type II and heterotic string compactifications on an isolated singularity in the noncompact Gepner model approach. The conifold-type ADE noncompact Calabi-Yau threefolds, as well as the ALE twofolds, are modeled by a tensor…
The overarching goal of this thesis was to develop categorical methods that connect enumerative geometry, as studied in mirror symmetry, with large $N$ gauge theories. In the first part, we established a relation between graph complexes,…
The B-model topological string theory on a Calabi-Yau threefold X has a symmetry group Gamma, generated by monodromies of the periods of X. This acts on the topological string wave function in a natural way, governed by the quantum…
Moduli stabilisation in string compactifications with many light scalars remains a major blind-spot in the string landscape. In these regimes, analytic methods cease to work for generic choices of UV parameters which is why numerical…
We review and elaborate on certain aspects of the connections between instanton counting in maximally supersymmetric gauge theories and the computation of enumerative invariants of smooth varieties. We study in detail three instances of…
We resolve a puzzle in the theory of strings propagating on locally flat spacetimes with nontrivial Wilson lines for stringy Z_N gauge symmetries. We find that strings probing such backgrounds are described by consistent worldsheet CFTs.…
In this thesis we probe various interactions between toric geometry and string theory. First, the notion of a top was introduced by Candelas and Font as a useful tool to investigate string dualities. These objects torically encode the local…
Open topological string amplitudes on compact Calabi-Yau threefolds are shown to satisfy an extension of the holomorphic anomaly equation of Bershadsky, Cecotti, Ooguri and Vafa. The total topological charge of the D-brane configuration…
Tree-level moduli stabilization via geometric and non-geometric fluxes in type IIB orientifolds on Calabi-Yau manifolds is investigated. The focus is on stable non-supersymmetric minima, where all moduli are fixed except for some massless…
We analyze the Neveu-Schwarz fivebrane instanton in type IIA string theory compactifications on rigid Calabi-Yau threefolds, in the low-energy supergravity approximation. It there appears as a finite action solution to the Euclidean…
In order to be in control of the $\alpha'$ derivative expansion, geometric string compactifications are understood in the context of a large volume approximation. In this letter, we consider the reduction of these higher derivative terms,…
In this paper, we study instanton corrections in the N=2* gauge theory by using its description in string theory as a freely-acting orbifold. The latter is used to compute, using the worldsheet, the deformation of the Yang-Mills action. In…
We consider non-perturbative four dimensional N=1 space-time supersymmetric orientifolds corresponding to Type I compactifications on (generalized) Voisin-Borcea orbifolds. Some states in such compactifications arise in ``twisted'' open…
Using heterotic/type II string duality, we obtain exact nonperturbative results for the point particle limit (alpha' -> 0) of some particular four dimensional, N=2 supersymmetric compactifications of heterotic strings. This allows us to…
We apply the modular approach to computing the topological string partition function on non-compact elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau 3-folds with higher Kodaira singularities in the fiber. The approach consists in making an ansatz for the…
We describe the twist quantization of string worldsheet theory, which unifies the description of quantization and the target space symmetry, based on the twisting of Hopf and module algebras. We formulate a method of decomposing a twist…
Sinha and Vafa \cite {sinha} had conjectured that the $SO$ Chern-Simons gauge theory on $S^3$ must be dual to the closed $A$-model topological string on the orientifold of a resolved conifold. Though the Chern-Simons free energy could be…
The open topological string partition function in the background of a D-brane on a Calabi-Yau threefold specifies a state in the Hilbert space associated with the quantization of the underlying special geometry. This statement is a…
We study duality and local symmetries of closed bosonic string from the perspectives of worldsheet approach in the phase space path integral formalism. It is shown that the Ward identities reflecting the local symmetries associated with…
We propose localization techniques for computing Gromov-Witten invariants of maps from Riemann surfaces with boundaries into a Calabi-Yau, with the boundaries mapped to a Lagrangian submanifold. The computations can be expressed in terms of…