Related papers: Super Yang-Mills, Matrix Models and Geometric Tran…
We study $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric Yang--Mills theory in four dimensions and then compactify it on $\mathbb{R}^{3}\times S^{1}$. The gauge symmetry of the theory is broken by a vacuum expectation value of the scalar field, which…
We study the multiplicity of BPS domain walls in N=1 super Yang-Mills theory, by passing to a weakly coupled Higgs phase through the addition of fundamental matter. The number of domain walls connecting two specified vacuum states is then…
Quantization of two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory on a torus in the gauge where the field strength is diagonal leads to twisted sectors that are completely analogous to the ones that originate long string states in Matrix String Theory. If…
Recently, the author has constructed a series of four dimensional non-critical string theories with eight supercharges, dual to theories of light electric and magnetic charges, for which exact formulas for the central charge of the…
It is conjectured that strongly coupled, spatially noncommutative $\mathcal{N}=4$ Yang-Mills theory has a dual description as a weakly coupled open string theory in a near critical electric field, and that this dual theory is fully…
We consider the realization of four-dimensional theories with N = 2 supersymmetry as M-theory configurations including a five-brane. Our emphasis is on the spectrum of massive states, that are realized as two-branes ending on the…
This is an introductory review on the eleven-dimensional description of the BPS bound states of type II superstring theories, and on the role of supermembranes in M-theory. The first part describes classical solutions of 11d supergravity…
Domain-wall solutions in four-dimensional supersymmetric field theories with distinct discrete vacuum states lead to the spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry, either completely or partially. We consider in detail the case when the domain…
A manifestly gauge invariant formulation of 5-dimensional supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories in terms of 4d superfields is derived. It relies on a supersymmetry and gauge-covariant derivative operator in the $x^5$ direction. This…
In these lectures we start with a pedagogical introduction of the properties of open and closed superstrings and then, using the open/closed string duality, we construct the boundary state that provides the description of the maximally…
We propose a method for constructing pairs of nonsupersymmetric gauge theories related by S-duality. Starting from a known S-duality of supersymmetric theories realized on the worldvolume of D3 branes in type IIB string theory, a new…
It is shown that the BPS spectrum of Super-Yang-Mills theory on $T^d\times \R$, which fits into representations of the U-duality group for M-theory compactified on $T^{d}$, in accordance with the matrix-theory conjecture, in fact fits into…
We study a class of noncommutative geometries that give rise to dimensionally reduced Yang-Mills theories. The emerging geometries describe sets of copies of an even dimensional manifold. Similarities to the D-branes in string theory are…
Type IIA brane configurations are used to construct N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories in two dimensions. Using localization of chiral multiplets in ten-dimensional spacetime, supersymmetric non-linear sigma models with target space such as…
We undertake a detailed study of the gaugings of two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory by its intrinsic charge conjugation 0-form and centre 1-form global symmetries, elucidating their higher algebraic and geometric structures, as well as the…
We study N=(2,2) supersymmetric abelian gauge theories in two dimensions. The exact BPS spectrum of these models is shown to coincide with the spectrum of massive hypermultiplets of certain N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories in four…
We derive general BPS boundary conditions in two-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=(2,2)$ supersymmetric gauge theories. We analyze the solutions of these boundary conditions, and in particular those that allow the bulk fields to have poles at the…
During the last ten years, intriguing dualities between gauge and string theory have been found and explored. They provide a novel window on strongly coupled gauge physics, including QCD-like models. Based on a short historical review of…
We study confining strings in ${\cal{N}}=1$ supersymmetric $SU(N_c)$ Yang-Mills theory in the semiclassical regime on $\mathbb{R}^{1,2} \times \mathbb{S}^1$. Static quarks are expected to be confined by double strings composed of two domain…
The Pentagon Model is an explicit supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model, which involves a new strongly-interacting SU(5) gauge theory at TeV-scale energies. We discuss embeddings of the Pentagon Model into string theory,…