Related papers: Semiclassical Strings Probing NS5 Brane Wrapped on…
The supermembrane theory on $R^{10}x S^1$ is investigated, for membranes that wrap once around the compact dimension. The Hamiltonian can be organized as describing $N_s$ interacting strings, the exact supermembrane corresponding to $N_s\to…
After a short introduction to Matrix theory, we explain how can one generalize matrix models to describe toroidal compactifications of M-theory and the heterotic vacua with 16 supercharges. This allows us, for the first time in history, to…
We consider D-branes of open superstrings in the AdS_5 x S^5 background. The possible configurations of D-branes preserving half of supersymmetries are classified by analyzing the kappa-invariance of an open superstring in a covariant…
M5-branes wrapping a holomorphic curve in a Calabi-Yau manifold can be used to construct four-dimensional N=1 gauge theories. In this paper we will consider M5-brane configurations corresponding to N=2 theories broken to N=1 by a…
M-theory on the maximally supersymmetric plane wave background of eleven-dimensional supergravity admits spherical BPS transverse M5-branes with zero light-cone energy. We give direct evidence that the single M5-brane state corresponds to…
We study the properties of branes in supergravity theory. We investigate a class of systems consisting of an M5-brane in the Kaluza-Klein monopole background with 1/4 supersymmetry in 11-dimensions. In the near core region of the…
1. Preliminaries. 2. Heterotic string and motivations for large volume compactifications; 2.1 Gauge coupling unification; 2.2 Supersymmetry breaking by compactification. 3. M-theory on S^1/Z_2 \times Calabi-Yau. 4. Type I/I' string theory…
We study the central charges of the supersymmetry algebra of branes in backgrounds corresponding to wrapped M5-branes. In the case of M5-branes wrapping a holomorphic 2-cycle in two complex-dimensional space, we find this allows for a…
We study one dimensional intersections of M5 branes with M5 and M2 branes. On the worldvolume of the M5-brane, such an intersection appears as a string soliton. We study this worldvolume theory in two different regimes: 1) Where the…
I review aspects of string theory on plane wave backgrounds emphasising the connection to gauge theory given by the BMN correspondence. Topics covered include the Penrose limit and its role in deriving the BMN duality from AdS/CFT,…
We review recent progress in the study of non-rational (boundary) conformal field theories and their applications to describe exact holographic backgrounds in superstring theory. We focus mainly on the example of the supersymmetric coset…
We review the recent advances towards finding the spectrum of the AdS_5 x S^5 superstring. We thoroughly explain the theoretical techniques which should be useful for the ultimate solution of the spectral problem. In certain cases our…
We revisit the problem of a classical open string representing a meson in the hard-wall geometry and consider the $S^5$ compact space. The existence of a confining region leads to a discrete set of string configurations parameterized by the…
Relation between semiclassical analyses of Green-Schwarz and pure spinor formalisms in an AdS_5 x S^5 background is clarified. It is shown that the two formalisms have identical semiclassical partition functions for a simple family of…
We analyse the symmetries of a class of A-type little string theories that are engineered by $N$ parallel M5-branes with M2-branes stretched between them. This paper deals with the so-called reduced free energy, which only receives…
We study the recent claim that black NS5-branes are filled with folded strings. We calculate, in the near-extremal case, the number of folded strings at the black fivebranes interior, using different approaches, and get the exact same…
We study supersymmetric intersections of NS5-, D6- and D8-branes in type IIA string theory. We focus on the supergravity description of this system and identify a "near horizon" limit in which we recover the recently classified…
A class of time dependent pp-waves with NS-NS flux in type IIA string theory is considered. The background preserves 1/4 supersymmetry and may provide a toy model of Big Bang cosmology with non trivial flux. At the Big Bang singularity in…
We argue that a near-extremal charge-$k$ type II NS fivebrane can be reliably described in semiclassical string perturbation theory as long as both $k$ and $\mu \over k$ are large, where $\mu$ is the energy density in string units. For a…
In the first part of this letter, we analyse the supergravity dual descriptions of six-dimensional field theories realized on the worldvolume of (p,q) five-branes (OD5 theory). We show that in order for the low-energy gauge theory…