Related papers: TASI Lectures on Compatification and Duality

We consider various aspects of compactifications of the Type I/heterotic $Spin(32)/\Z_2$ theory on K3. One family of such compactifications includes the standard embedding of the spin connection in the gauge group, and is on the same moduli…

This paper serves to elucidate the nature of toric duality dubbed in hep-th/0003085 in the construction for world volume theories of D-branes probing arbitrary toric singularities. This duality will be seen to be due to certain permutation…

By identifying the moduli space of coupling constants in the SYM description of toroidal compactifications of M(atrix)-Theory, we construct the M(atrix) description of the moduli spaces of Type IIA string theory compactified on T^n.…

We study electric-magnetic duality in compactifications of M-theory on twisted connected sum (TCS) $G_2$ manifolds via duality with F-theory. Specifically, we study the physics of the D3-branes in F-theory compactified on a Calabi-Yau…

Supermembrane compactified on a $M_9\times T^2$ target space is globally described by the inequivalent classes of torus bundles over torus. These torus bundles have monodromy in $SL(2,Z)$ when they correspond to the nontrivial central…

We initiate a systematic investigation of the space of 2+1 dimensional quiver gauge theories, emphasising a succinct "forward algorithm". Few "order parametres" are introduced such as the number of terms in the superpotential and the number…

I calculate the semiclassical phase shift ($\delta$), as function of impact parameter ($b$) and velocity ($v$), when one D-brane moves past another. From its low-velocity expansion I show that, for torroidal compactifications, the moduli…

We study the phase structure of four-dimensional N=1 super Yang-Mills theories realized on D6-branes wrapping the RP^3 of a Z_2 orbifold of the deformed conifold. The non-trivial fundamental group of RP^3 allows for the gauge group to be…

This is mostly* a non-technical exposition of the joint work arXiv:1212.0373 with Caporaso and Payne. Topics include: Moduli of Riemann surfaces / algebraic curves; Deligne-Mumford compactification; Dual graphs and the combinatorics of the…

We review quantitative tests on the duality between the heterotic string on T^2 and F-theory on K3. On the heterotic side, certain threshold corrections to the effective action can be exactly computed at one-loop order, and the issue is to…

In the last few years, brane tilings have proven to be an efficient and convenient way of studying supersymmetric gauge theories living on D3-branes or M2-branes. In these pages we present a quick and simple introduction to the subject,…

This is an introductory review of the AdS/CFT correspondence and of the ideas that led to its formulation. We show how comparison of stacks of D3-branes with corresponding supergravity solutions leads to dualities between conformal large…

The moduli dependence of $(2,2)$ superstring compactifications based on Calabi--Yau hypersurfaces in weighted projective space has so far only been investigated for Fermat-type polynomial constraints. These correspond to Landau-Ginzburg…

We present an exact description of the metric on the moduli space of vacua and the spectrum of massive states for four dimensional N=2 supersymmetric SU(n) gauge theories. The moduli space of quantum vacua is identified with the moduli…

This is the sequel to arXiv:math/0001089. In this paper, we complete the promised description of moduli of abelian surfaces of low degree, covering the cases of degree (1,12), (1,14), (1,16), (1,18) and (1,20). In each case, we describe…

We discuss theories with 16 and 8 supercharges in 6 and 7 dimensions. These theories are defined as world-volume theories of 5- and 6-branes of type II and M theories, in the limit in which bulk modes decouple. We analyze in detail the…

We review and extend the progress made over the past few years in understanding the structure of toric quiver gauge theories; those which are induced on the world-volume of a stack of D3-branes placed at the tip of a toric Calabi-Yau cone,…

We study the moduli space of M-theories compactified on G_2 manifolds which are asymptotic to a cone over quotients of S^3 x S^3. We show that the moduli space is composed of several components, each of which interpolates smoothly among…

These lectures explore what can be learnt about M-theory from its superalgebra. The first three lectures introduce the 'basic' branes of M-theory, and type II superstring theories, and show how the duality relations between them are encoded…

We describe the topology of the moduli spaces of flat metrics for all the 3-dimensional closed manifolds. We give an algebraic description of the moduli spaces for the 4-dimensional closed flat manifolds with a single generator in their…