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We construct, as hypersurfaces in toric varieties, Calabi-Yau manifolds corresponding to F-theory vacua dual to E8*E8 heterotic strings compactified to six dimensions on K3 surfaces with non-semisimple gauge backgrounds. These vacua were…
We compute the corrections to heterotic-string backgrounds with (2,0) world-sheet supersymmetry, up to two loops in sigma-model perturbation theory. We investigate the conditions for these backgrounds to preserve spacetime supersymmetry and…
The non-perturbative equivalence of four-dimensional N=2 superstrings with three vector multiplets and four hypermultiplets is analysed. These models are obtained through freely acting orbifold compactifications from the heterotic, the…
There is a large number of different ways of constructing Calabi-Yau manifolds, as well as related non-geometric formulations, relevant in string compactifications. Showcasing this diversity, we discuss explicit deformation families of…
Recent results on duality between string theories and connectedness of their moduli spaces seem to go a long way toward establishing the uniqueness of an underlying theory. For the large class of Calabi-Yau 3-folds that can be embedded as…
We propose a construction of K\"ahler and non-K\"ahler Calabi-Yau manifolds by branched double covers of twistor spaces. In this construction we use the twistor spaces of four-manifolds with self-dual conformal structures, with the examples…
We demonstrate the equivalence of all loop closed topological string amplitudes on toric local Calabi-Yau threefolds with computations of certain knot invariants for Chern-Simons theory. We use this equivalence to compute the topological…
Mirror Symmetry for Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in toric varieties is by now well established. However, previous approaches to it did not uncover the underlying reason for mirror varieties to be mirror. We are able to calculate explicitly…
We use mirror symmetry, the refined holomorphic anomaly equation and modularity properties of elliptic singularities to calculate the refined BPS invariants of stable pairs on non-compact Calabi-Yau manifolds, based on del Pezzo surfaces…
We review recent work which has significantly sharpened our geometric understanding and interpretation of the moduli space of certain $N$=2 superconformal field theories. This has resolved some important issues in mirror symmetry and has…
While Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in toric ambient spaces provide a huge number of examples, theoretical considerations as well as applications to string phenomenology often suggest a broader perspective. With even the question of finiteness…
This is an outline of work in progress concerning an algebro-geometric form of the Strominger-Yau-Zaslow conjecture. We introduce a limited type of degeneration of Calabi-Yau manifolds, which we call toric degenerations. For these, the…
We show that the exact N=1 superpotential of a class of 4d string compactifications is computed by the closed topological string compactified to two dimensions. A relation to the open topological string is used to define a special geometry…
We discuss the structure of heterotic/type II duality in four dimensions as a consequence of string-string duality in six dimensions. We emphasize the new features in four dimensions which go beyond the six dimensional vacuum structure and…
We derive and test a novel holographic duality in the B-model topological string theory. The duality relates the B-model on certain Calabi-Yau three-folds to two-dimensional chiral algebras defined as gauged $\beta\gamma\,$ systems. The…
We study the quantum geometry of the class of Calabi-Yau threefolds, which are elliptic fibrations over a two-dimensional toric base. A holomorphic anomaly equation for the topological string free energy is proposed, which is iterative in…
We consider smooth complete intersection Calabi-Yau 3-folds in minuscule Schubert varieties, and study their mirror symmetry by degenerating the ambient Schubert varieties to Hibi toric varieties. We list all possible Calabi-Yau 3-folds of…
Motivated in part by the modular properties of enumerative invariants of K3-fibered Calabi-Yau threefolds, we introduce a family of 39 Calabi-Yau mirror pairs $(X,Y)$ with $h_{1,1}(X)=h_{2,1}(Y)=2$, labelled by certain integer quadruples…
In the class of (0,2) heterotic compactifications which has been constructed in the framework of gauged linear sigma models the Calabi-Yau varieties X are realized as complete intersections of hypersurfaces in toric varieties IP and the…
In previous work, it was argued that the type IIB T^6/Z_2 orientifold with a choice of flux preserving N=2 supersymmetry is dual to a class of purely geometric type IIA compactifications on abelian surface (T^4) fibered Calabi-Yau…