Related papers: Type II string theory and modularity
The primary purpose of these lecture notes is to explore the moduli space of type IIA, type IIB, and heterotic string compactified on a K3 surface. The main tool which is invoked is that of string duality. K3 surfaces provide a fascinating…
Recent work on four dimensional effective descriptions of the heterotic string has identified the moduli of such systems as being given by kernels of maps between ordinary Dolbeault cohomology groups. The maps involved are defined by the…
We analyze the map between heterotic and type II N=2 supersymmetric string theories for certain two and three moduli examples found by Kachru and Vafa. The appearance of elliptic j-functions can be traced back to specializations of the…
We argue that all conjectured dualities involving various string, M- and F- theory compactifications can be `derived' from the conjectured duality between type I and SO(32) heterotic string theory, T-dualities, and the definition of M- and…
The topological part of the M-theory partition function was shown by Witten to be encoded in the index of an E8 bundle in eleven dimensions. This partition function is, however, not automatically anomaly-free. We observe here that the…
The cohomology theory known as Tmf, for "topological modular forms," is a universal object mapping out to elliptic cohomology theories, and its coefficient ring is closely connected to the classical ring of modular forms. We extend this to…
This is a very brief survey of some results in the geometry of string duality delivered at a lecture given at ICM 1998, Berlin. String Duality is the statement that one kind of string theory compactified on one space is equivalent in some…
We study orbifold compactifications of F-theory which lead to $N=1$ supersymmetry in 6 and 4 spacetime dimensions. These are dual to specific orientifolds of M-theory, and in many cases to orientifolds of type IIB string theory. The…
This thesis presents several new insights on the interface between mathematics and theoretical physics, with a central role for fermions on Riemann surfaces. First of all, the duality between Vafa-Witten theory and WZW models is embedded…
By means of an appropriate re-scaling of the metric in a Lagrangian, we are able to reduce it to a kinetic term only. This form enables us to examine the extended complexified solution set (complex moduli space) of field theories by finding…
The recent developments in string theory suggest that the space-time coordinates should be generalized to non-commuting matrices. Postulating this suggestion as the fundamental geometrical principle, we formulate a candidate for covariant…
Heterotic string compactifications on a $K3$ surface $\mathfrak{S}$ depend on a choice of hyperk\"ahler metric, anti-self-dual gauge connection and Kalb-Ramond flux, parametrized by hypermultiplet scalars. The metric on hypermultiplet…
We study the string topology of a closed oriented Riemannian manifold M. We describe a compact moduli space of diagrams, and show how the cellular chain complex of this space gives algebraic operations on the singular chains of the free…
We construct non-geometric string compactifications by using the F-theory dual of the heterotic string compactified on a two-torus with two Wilson line parameters, together with a close connection between modular forms and the equations for…
We extend the investigation of special toroidal compactifications of heterotic string theory for which the half-BPS states provide representations of subgroups of the Conway group. We also explore dual descriptions of these theories and…
6-dimensional superconformal field theories are exotic and fascinating. They emerge from compactifications of F-theory on Calabi-Yau elliptic fibrations, which grants them a rich array of dualities with various other formulations of string…
F-theory is perhaps the most general currently available approach to study non-perturbative string compactifications in their geometric, large radius regime. It opens up a wide and ever-growing range of applications and connections to…
If $X$ and $Y$ are a mirror pair of Calabi--Yau threefolds, mirror symmetry should extend to an isomorphism between the type IIA string theory compactified on $X$ and the type IIB string theory compactified on $Y$, with all nonperturbative…
In these lectures, we review the main properties of the topological theory obtained by twisting the N=2 two-dimensional superconformal algebra, associated to supersymmetric string compactifications. In particular, we describe a set of…
One of the dualities in string theory, the F-theory/heterotic string duality in eight dimensions, predicts an interesting correspondence between two seemingly disparate geometrical objects. On one side of the duality there are elliptically…