Related papers: M-theory compactifications, G_2-manifolds and anom…
This thesis treats several topics in the study of extra-dimensional models of the world, concerning Heterotic M-Theory and the dynamics of branes. We describe a reduction to five dimensions, over a Calabi-Yau manifold, of an improved…
The chiral worldvolume theory of an M-theory boundary (the so-called M9 brane) is uniquely determined by supersymmetry and anomaly inflow. In this brief note we investigate whether alternative chiral boundary field contents may be allowed…
We study the M-theory five-brane wrapped around the Seiberg-Witten curves for pure classical and exceptional groups given by an integrable system. Generically, the D4-branes arise as cuts that collapse to points after compactifying the…
We show that the pure gauge anomalies of 6d $\mathcal N=(1,0)$ theories compactified on a circle are captured by field-dependent Chern-Simons terms appearing at one-loop in the 5d effective theories. These terms vanish if and only if…
M-theory can be defined on closed manifolds as well as on manifolds with boundary. As an extension, we show that manifolds with corners appear naturally in M-theory. We illustrate this with four situations: The lift to bounding twelve…
In this thesis we study string compactifications on manifolds equipped with a $G$-structure, placing a special emphasis on the interplay between geometry and physics. We follow two complementary approaches. In the first part of the thesis…
This paper is concerned with "nice" compactifications of manifolds. Siebenmann's iconic dissertation characterized open manifolds M^m (m>5) compactifiable by addition of a manifold boundary. His theorem extends easily to cases where M^m is…
A suitable generalisation of the Lichnerowicz formula can relate the squares of supersymmetric operators to the effective action, the Bianchi identities for fluxes, and some equations of motion. Recently, such formulae have also been shown…
Lower-dimensional (hyper)surfaces that can carry gauge or gauge/gravitational anomalies occur in many areas of physics: one-plus-one-dimensional boundaries or two-dimensional defect surfaces in condensed matter systems, four-dimensional…
These lectures present an introduction to supergravity, and are intended for graduate students with a working knowledge of quantum field theory, including the elementary group theory needed for it, but no prior knowledge of general…
We study the supergravity duals of supersymmetric theories arising in the world-volume of D6 branes wrapping holomorphic two-cycles and special Lagrangian three-cycles within the framework of eight dimensional gauged supergravity. When…
We study a decoupling limit of M-theory where the three-form gauge potential becomes critical. This limit leads to nonrelativistic M-theory coupled to a non-Lorentzian spacetime geometry. Nonrelativistic M-theory is U-dual to M-theory in…
We discuss the reduction of the eleven-dimensional M-theory effective Lagrangian, considering first compactification from eleven to five dimensions on a Calabi-Yau manifold, followed by reduction to four dimensions on an S_1/Z_2 line…
Using a reconstruction theorem, we prove that the supersymmetry conditions for a certain class of flux backgrounds are equivalent with a tractable subsystem of relations on differential forms which encodes the full set of contraints arising…
This work is intended as a pedagogical introduction to M-theory and to its maximally supersymmetric toroidal compactifications, in the frameworks of 11D supergravity, type II string theory and M(atrix) theory. U-duality is used as the main…
A self-duality group $\cal G$ in quantum field theory can have anomalies. In that case, the space of ordinary coupling constants $\cal M$ can be extended to include the space $\cal F$ of coefficients of counterterms in background fields.…
We study S-dualities in analytically continued SL(2) Chern-Simons theory on a 3-manifold M. By realizing Chern-Simons theory via a compactification of a 6d five-brane theory on M, various objects and symmetries in Chern-Simons theory become…
We study M-theory compactified on a specific class of seven-dimensional manifolds with SU(3) structure. The manifolds can be viewed as a fibration of an arbitrary Calabi-Yau threefold over a circle, with a U-duality twist around the circle.…
We compute the mass and multiplet spectrum of M theory compactified on the product of AdS(4) spacetime by the Stiefel manifold V(5,2)=SO(5)/SO(3), and we use this information to deduce via the AdS/CFT map the primary operator content of the…
For $M$-theory on the $G_2$ holonomy manifold given by the cone on ${\bf S^3}\x {\bf S^3}$ we consider the superpotential generated by membrane instantons and study its transformations properties, especially under monodromy transformations…