Related papers: Simplicial and modular aspects of string dualities
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…
The first part of these lectures contains an introductory review of the AdS/CFT duality and of its tests. Applications to thermal gauge theory are also discussed briefly. The second part is devoted to a review of gauge-string dualities…
This thesis analyses gauged supergravities in various dimensions and their possible origin from compactifications of string theory. In the effective description the fluxes appear in the theory as deformation parameters generating a…
We examine the properties and symmetries of the lowest order effective theory of 4-dim string backgrounds with axion and dilaton fields and zero cosmological constant. The dimensional reduction yields an O(2,2) current group of…
This is the text of my habilitation thesis defended at the \'Ecole Normale Sup\'erieure. The topological string presents an arena in which many features of string theory proper, such as the interplay between worldsheet and target space…
I argue that string theory compactified on a Riemann surface crosses over at small volume to a higher dimensional background of supercritical string theory. Several concrete measures of the count of degrees of freedom of the theory yield…
We study different phenomenological aspects of compact, D=4, N=1 Type IIB orientifolds considered as models for unification of the standard model and gravity. We discuss the structure of the compactification, string and unification scales…
This Laurea Thesis contains six introductory chapters (I-VI) on various aspects of String Theory, mostly related to String compactifications, orientifold constructions and SUSY breaking. On the other hand, the last chapter contains some new…
We present a review of heterotic-type I string duality. In particular, we discuss the effective field theory of six- and four-dimensional compactifications with N>1 supersymmetries. We then describe various duality tests by comparing gauge…
The goal of these lectures is to present an informal but precise introduction to a body of concepts and methods of interest in number theory and string theory revolving around modular forms and their generalizations. Modular invariance lies…
In this thesis we study classical aspects of superconformal field theory via symmetry principles. Specifically, by employing the powerful setup of conformal superspace, we obtain a plethora of new results in the fields of geometric and…
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…
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…
An overview is given of the way in which the unification program of particle physics has evolved into the proposal of superstring theory as a prime candidate for unifying quantum gravity with the other forces and particles of nature. A key…
For the relativistic string with massive ends arbitrary small disturbances of the uniform rotation of the rectilinear string are investigated. There are two classes of these oscillations with different spectra of frequencies. They are…
The strong coupling dynamics of string theories in dimension $d\geq 4$ are studied. It is argued, among other things, that eleven-dimensional supergravity arises as a low energy limit of the ten-dimensional Type IIA superstring, and that a…
Conformal boundary conditions in two-dimensional conformal field theories are still mostly an uncharted territory. Even less is known about the relevant boundary deformations that connect them. A natural approach to the problem is via…
This dissertation consists of a comprehensive and pedagogical review of Maldacena's original derivation of the AdS/CFT correspondence and the main topics of string theory necessary to understand it. The large $N$ expansion of Yang-Mills…
The string duality revolution calls into question virtually all of the working assumptions of string model builders. A number of difficult questions arise. I use fractional charge as an example of a criterion which one would hope is robust…
Amidst all candidates of physics beyond the Standard Model, string theory provides a unique proposal for incorporating gauge and gravitational interactions. In string theory, a four-dimensional theory that unifies quantum mechanics and…