Related papers: Strings through the Microscope
We study branes and open strings in a large class of orbifolds of a curved background using microscopic techniques of boundary conformal field theory. In particular, we obtain factorizing operator product expansions of open string vertex…
This is a broad-brush review of how string theory addresses several important questions of gravitational physics. The problem of non-renormalizability is first reviewed, followed by introduction of string theory as an ultraviolet-finite…
The string duality revolution calls into question virtually all of the working assumptions of string model builders. A number of difficult questions arise. I use fractional charge as an example of a criterion which one would hope is robust…
The non-perturbative dynamics of quantum field theories is studied using theoretical tools inspired by string formalism. Two main lines are developed: the analysis of stringy instantons in a class of four-dimensional N=2 gauge theories and…
We will show how the study of randomly triangulated surfaces merges with the study of open/closed string dualities. In particular we will discuss the Conformal Field Theory which arises in the open string sector and its implications.
In this article, prepared for the book "The birth of string theory", I recall the sequence of ideas which led to non-critical strings and gauge/strings duality. I also comment on some promising future directions.
1. Preliminaries. 2. Heterotic string and motivations for large volume compactifications; 2.1 Gauge coupling unification; 2.2 Supersymmetry breaking by compactification. 3. M-theory on S^1/Z_2 \times Calabi-Yau. 4. Type I/I' string theory…
String theory is the leading contemporary framework to explore the synthesis of quantum mechanics with gravity. String phenomenology aims to study string theory while maintaining contact with observational data. The fermionic $Z_2\times…
We consider a closed string field theory with an arbitrary matter current as a source of the closed string field. We find that the source must satisfy a constraint equation as a consequence of the BRST invariance of the theory. We see that…
In this article we will overview several aspects of the string landscape, namely intersecting D-brane models and their statistics, possible model independent LHC signatures of intersecting brane models, flux compactification, moduli…
We develop quantization aspects of our Liouville approach to non-critical strings, proposing a path-integral formulation of a second quantization of string theory, that incorporates naturally the couplings of string sources to background…
Dvali and Shifman have proposed a field-theoretic mechanism for localizing gauge fields to "branes" in higher dimensional spaces using confinement in a bulk gauge theory. The resulting objects have a number of qualitative features in common…
We consider Dirichlet p-branes in type II string theory on a space which has been toroidally compactified in d dimensions. We give an explicit construction of the field theory description of this system by putting a countably infinite…
D-branes intersecting at an arbitrary fixed angle generically constitute a configuration unstable toward recombination. The reconnection of the branes nucleates at the intersection point and involves a generalization of the process of brane…
We establish a translation dictionary between open and closed strings, starting from open string field theory. Under this correspondence, (off-shell) level-matched closed string states are represented by star algebra projectors in open…
In this review branes of string theory are described from three different perspectives: as endpoints of open string, as supergravity backgrounds with BPS properties, as dynamical objects with gauge invariant actions. Based on these…
The string and brane tensions do not have to be put in by hand, they can be dynamically generated, as in the case when we formulate string and brane theories in the modified measure formalism. Then string and brane tensions appears, but as…
After a review of some topics concerning the phenomenological applications of perturbative string theory, I discuss to what extent all of it is affected by the recent developements in string dualities.
We study the 6d $\mathcal{N}=(1,0)$ superconformal field theory with smallest non-Higgsable gauge symmetry $SU(3)$. In particular, we propose new 2d gauge theory descriptions of its self-dual strings in the tensor branch. We use our gauge…
We describe some of the novel 6d quantum field theories which have been discovered in studies of string duality. The role these theories (and their 4d descendants) may play in alleviating the vacuum degeneracy problem in string theory is…