Related papers: Semiclassical Strings Probing NS5 Brane Wrapped on…
In this note we study the puzzle posed by two M5-branes intersecting on a string (or equivalently, a single M5-brane wrapping a holomorphic four-cycle in C^4). It has been known for a while that this system is different from all other…
We construct an M-theory dual of a 6 dimensional little string theory with reduced supersymmetry, along the lines of Polchinski and Strassler. We find that upon perturbing the (2,0) theory with an R-current, the M5 branes polarize into a…
Metastable supersymmetry breaking configurations of D-branes and NS5-branes in string theory often owe their existence to classical gravitational interactions between the branes. We show that in the effective theory of the light fields,…
In the fruitful interplay between gauge fields and strings and in many conjectured M-theory dualities, open strings play a prominent role. We review the construction of open-string descendants (un-orientifolds) of closed-string theories…
We study rigidly rotating and pulsating strings in the background of a 1+1 dimensional intersection of two orthogonal stacks of fivebranes in type IIB string theory by using the Neumann-Rosochatius (NR) model. Starting with the Polyakov…
We argue that vacua of string theory which asymptote at weak coupling to linear dilaton backgrounds are holographic. The full string theory in such vacua is ``dual'' to a theory without gravity in fewer dimensions. The dual theory is…
The moduli space of vacua for the confining phase of N=1 $SO(N_c)$ supersymmetric gauge theories in four dimensions is analyzed by studying the M theory fivebrane. The type IIA brane configuration consists of a single NS5 brane, multiple…
In these lectures, two different aspects of brane world scenarios in 5d gravity or string theory are discussed. In the first two lectures, work on how warped compactifications of 5d gravity theories can change the guise of the hierarchy…
The light-like linear dilaton background presents a simple time dependent solution of type II supergravity equations of motion that preserves 1/2 supersymmetry in ten dimensions. We construct supergravity D-brane solutions in a linear…
The entropy of the three-charge NS5-F1-P black hole in Type IIA string theory comes from the breaking of $N_1$ F1 strings into $N_1 N_5$ little strings, which become independent momentum carriers. In M theory, the little strings correspond…
In this PhD thesis the low energy effective actions for D-branes and the M5-brane are used to analyze the dynamics of brane probes moving in the geometry created by diverse supergravity backgrounds. It begins with an introduction to string…
We consider M-theory in the presence of M parallel M5-branes probing a transverse A_{N-1} singularity. This leads to a superconformal theory with (1,0) supersymmetry in six dimensions. We compute the supersymmetric partition function of…
We consider the non-abelian theory (http://arxiv.org/abs/arXiv:1203.4224) for an arbitrary number $N_5$ of five-branes and construct self-dual string solution with an arbitrary $N_2$ unit of self-dual charges. This generalizes the previous…
This is a short review of the newly discovered ODp-theories that are non-gravitational six-dimensional theories defined as the decoupling limit of NS5-branes in the presence of a near-critical (p+1)-form RR fields. We discuss the motivation…
We analyze exactly the simplest minimal superstring theory, using its dual matrix model. Its target space is one dimensional (the Liouville direction), and the background fields include a linear dilaton, a possible tachyon condensate, and…
We study probe M5-branes in N=1 AdS5 solutions of M-theory that arise from M5-branes wrapped on a Riemann surface. Using the BPS condition from kappa-symmetry, we classify supersymmetric probe M5-branes that extend along all of AdS5 and…
We study classical spinning closed string configuration on logarithmically deformed AdS_5 x T^{1,1} background with non-trivial Neveu-Schwarz B-field in which IIB string theory is dual to a non-conformal N=1 SU(N+M) x SU(N) gauge theory.…
We study the four-dimensional N=2 superconformal field theories that describe D3-branes probing the recently constructed N=2 S-folds in F-theory. We introduce a novel, infinite class of superconformal field theories related to S-fold…
The massless degrees of freedom of type 0 NS5-branes are derived. A non-chiral, purely bosonic spectrum is found in both type 0A and 0B. This non-chirality is confirmed by a one-loop computation in the bulk. Some puzzles concerning type 0B…
Coincident D3-branes placed at a conical singularity are related to string theory on $AdS_5\times X_5$, for a suitable five-dimensional Einstein manifold $X_5$. For the example of the conifold, which leads to $X_5=T^{1,1}=(SU(2)\times…