Related papers: M-theory and Characteristic Classes

In a previous work, hep-th/0501245, we introduced characters and classes built out of the M-theory four-form and the Pontrjagin classes, which we used to express the Chern-Simons and the one-loop terms in a way that makes the topological…

In previous work we derived the topological terms in the M-theory action in terms of certain characters that we defined. In this paper, we propose the extention of these characters to include the dual fields. The unified treatment of the…

We observe that the string field theory actions for the topological sigma models describe higher or categorified Chern-Simons theories. These theories yield dynamical equations for connective structures on higher principal bundles. As a…

The physical motivations and the basic construction rules for Type I strings and M-theory compactifications are reviewed in light of the recent developments. The first part contains the basic theoretical ingredients needed for building…

We study M-theory on two classes of manifolds of Spin(7) holonomy that are developing an isolated conical singularity. We construct explicitly a new class of Spin(7) manifolds and analyse in detail the topology of the corresponding…

This article reviews the non-perturbative structure of certain higher derivative terms in the type II string theory effective action and their connection to one-loop effects in eleven-dimensional supergravity compactified on a torus. New…

The past year has seen enormous progress in string theory. It has become clear that all of the different string theories are different limits of a single theory. Moreover, in certain limits, one obtains a new, eleven-dimensional structure…

The monodromy relations in string theory provide a powerful and elegant formalism to understand some of the deepest properties of tree-level field theory amplitudes, like the color-kinematics duality. This duality has been instrumental in…

This is an introduction to some recent developments in string theory and M theory. We try to concentrate on the main physical aspects, and often leave more technical details to the original literature.

We introduce certain relative differential characters which we call Cheeger-Chern-Simons characters. These combine the well-known Cheeger-Simons characters with Chern-Simons forms. In the same way as the Cheeger-Simons characters generalize…

From the cohomological point of view the symplectomorphism group $Sympl (M)$ of a symplectic manifold is `` tamer'' than the diffeomorphism group. The existence of invariant polynomials in the Lie algebra $\frak {sympl }(M)$, the symplectic…

The key open problem of string theory remains its non-perturbative completion to M-theory. A decisive hint to its inner workings comes from numerous appearances of higher structures in the limits of M-theory that are already understood,…

In this note we present a brief overview of connections between Chern-Simons theory and topological strings. A prominent role in this link has been played by large N dualities and holography. We demystify this by explaining why the Kahler…

In this paper we continue the study of the model proposed in the previous paper hep-th/0002077. The model consist of a system of extended objects of diverse dimensionalities, with or without boundaries, with actions of the Chern-Simons form…

We show that every twist of pure supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with gauge group GL(N) can be realized as an open-string field theory in topological string theory. Our approach reinterprets twists of supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory as…

In this note we provide a new perspective on the topological parts of several action functionals in string and M-theory. We show that rationally these can be viewed as large gauge transformations corresponding to variations of higher…

A theory of characteristic classes of vector bundles and smooth manifolds plays an important role in the theory of smooth manifolds. An investigation of reasonable notions of characteristic classes of singular spaces started since a…

We develop a method for relating the boundary effective action associated with an orbifold of the D+1 dimensional theory of a p-form field to D dimensional fluxed Chern-Simons type of terms. We apply the construction to derive from twelve…

We introduce a notion of topological M-theory and argue that it provides a unification of form theories of gravity in various dimensions. Its classical solutions involve G_2 holonomy metrics on 7-manifolds, obtained from a topological…

We investigate metric independent, gauge invariant and closed forms in the generalized YM theory. These forms are polynomial on the corresponding fields strength tensors - curvature forms and are analogous to the Pontryagin-Chern densities…