Related papers: Phase transitions, double-scaling limit, and topol…
The study of the geometry of Calabi-Yau fourfolds is relevant for compactifications of string theory, M-theory, and F-theory to various dimensions. In the first part of this thesis, we study the action of mirror symmetry on two-dimensional…
We describe the structure of string vacuum states in the supersymmetric matrix model for M theory compactified on a circle in the large-N limit. We show that the theory admits topological instanton field configurations which at…
We study the topological string on compact Calabi-Yau threefolds in the presence of orientifolds and D-branes. In examples, we find that the total topological string amplitude admits a BPS expansion only if the topological charge of the…
We consider the general case of a type IIA string compactified on a Calabi-Yau manifold which has a heterotic dual description. It is shown that the nonabelian gauge symmetries which can appear nonperturbatively in the type II string but…
We study the physics of N=1 super Yang-Mills theory with gauge group U(Nc) and one adjoint Higgs field, by using the recently derived exact effective superpotentials. Interesting phenomena occur for some special values of the Higgs…
The raise of the symmetry breaking mechanism by Landau[1] is a landmark in the studies of phase transitions. The Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition[2-3] and the fractional quantum Hall effect[4], however, are believed to be induced by…
We consider certain quantum spectral problems appearing in the study of local Calabi-Yau geometries. The quantum spectrum can be computed by the Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization condition for a period integral. For the case of small Planck…
We consider the topological B-model on local Calabi-Yau geometries. We show how one can solve for the amplitudes by using W-algebra symmetries which encodes the symmetries of holomorphic diffeomorphisms of the Calabi-Yau. In the highly…
The partition function of ABJM theory on the three-sphere has non-perturbative corrections due to membrane instantons in the M-theory dual. We show that the full series of membrane instanton corrections is completely determined by the…
We consider the $2+1$ dimensional Yang-Mills theory with gauge group $\text{SU}(N)$ on a flat 2-torus under twisted boundary conditions. We study the possibility of phase transitions (tachyonic instabilities) when $N$ and the volume vary…
Extracting reliable low-energy information from string compactifications notoriously requires a detailed understanding of the UV sensitivity of the corresponding effective field theories. Despite past efforts in computing perturbative…
We consider two-dimensional ${\cal N} = (2, 2)$ Yang--Mills theory with gauge group SU($N$) in Euclidean signature compactified on a torus with thermal fermion boundary conditions imposed on one cycle. We perform non-perturbative lattice…
We analyze the U-duality group for the case of a type II superstring compactified to four dimensions on a K3 surface times a torus. The various limits of this theory are considered which have interpretations as type IIA and IIB…
In this work, we provide evidence for a duality between 4-dimensional Calabi-Yau compactifications of the heterotic string, in which the base manifolds are linked by a conifold transition. In recent work, a geometric proposal was put…
We study infinite distance limits in the complex structure moduli space of Type IIB compactifications on Calabi--Yau threefolds, in light of the Emergent String Conjecture. We focus on the so-called type II limits, which, based on the…
A class of Aubry-Andr\'e-Harper models of spin-orbit coupled electrons exhibits a topological phase diagram where two regions belonging to the same phase are split up by a multicritical point. The critical lines which meet at this point…
Compactifications of type II theories on Calabi-Yau threefolds including electric and magnetic background fluxes are discussed. We derive the bosonic part of the four-dimensional low energy effective action and show that it is a…
We consider {\bf B}-model large $N$ duality for a new class of noncompact Calabi-Yau spaces modeled on the neighborhood of a ruled surface in a Calabi-Yau threefold. The closed string side of the transition is governed at genus zero by an…
Recently topological states of matter have witnessed a new physical phenomenon where both edge modes and gapless bulk coexist at topological quantum criticality. The presence and absence of edge modes on a critical line can lead to an…
We study difference equations which are obtained from the asymptotic expansion of topological string theory on the deformed and the resolved conifold geometries as well as for topological string theory on arbitrary families of Calabi-Yau…