Related papers: Phase transitions, double-scaling limit, and topol…
In type-II string theory compactifications on Calabi-Yau manifolds, topological string theory partition functions give a class of exact F-terms in the four-dimensional effective action. We point out that in the background of constant…
A new framework is found for the compactification of supersymmetric string theory. It is shown that the massless spectra of Calabi--Yau manifolds of complex dimension $D_{crit}$ can be derived from noncritical manifolds of complex dimension…
The quantization of the Seiberg-Witten curve of ${\cal N}=2$ super Yang-Mills theory leads to a deformation of one-dimensional quantum mechanics with unconventional behavior. Most notably, quantum tunneling is suppressed at special points…
Based on the flux-scaling scenario we study a model consisting on Type IIB string theory compactified on a Calabi-Yau manifold with a frozen complex structure in the presence of generic fluxes. The model contains (meta)stable Minkowski and…
In this work we explore the physics associated to Calabi-Yau (CY) n-folds that can be described as a fibration in more than one way. Beginning with F-theory vacua in various dimensions, we consider limits/dualities with M-theory, type IIA,…
This work addresses nonperturbative effects in both matrix models and topological strings, and their relation with the large-order behavior of the 1/N expansion. We study instanton configurations in generic one-cut matrix models, obtaining…
Type IIA string theory compactified on a Calabi-Yau threefold has a hypermultiplet moduli space whose metric is known to receive non-perturbative corrections from Euclidean D2-branes wrapped on 3-cycles. These corrections have been computed…
In the presence of a D-brane a string theory develops a new subsector. We show that for curved D-branes the corresponding sector is a (partially twisted) topological field theory. We use this result to compute the degeneracy of 2-branes…
We study the Nekrasov-Shatashvili limit of the N=2 supersymmetric gauge theory and topological string theory on certain local toric Calabi-Yau manifolds. In this limit one of the two deformation parameters \epsilon_{1,2} of the Omega…
Recent work on four dimensional effective descriptions of the heterotic string has identified the moduli of such systems as being given by kernels of maps between ordinary Dolbeault cohomology groups. The maps involved are defined by the…
We propose that chiral two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory on a Riemann surface is dual to a deformed stationary subsector of the Gromov-Witten theory of that Riemann surface. Firstly, we argue that the algebraic structure that underlies the…
Two-dimensional hybrid superstring on singular Calabi-Yau manifolds is studied by the field redefinition of the NSR formalism. The compactification on singular Calabi-Yau fourfold is described by N=2 super-Liouville theory and N=2…
We consider Newman's representation of the Kerr geometry as a complex retarded-time construction generated by a source propagating along a complex world-line. We notice that the complex world-line forms really an open complex string,…
We review recent progress in understanding non-perturbative instanton corrections to the hypermultiplet moduli space in type II string compactifications on Calabi-Yau threefolds.
This article is the PhD thesis of the author. It is focused on Type II compactifications because of the potential for the construction of realistic MSSM-like compactifications. In particular we concentrate in Type IIB Calabi-Yau…
We study limits of four-dimensional type II Calabi-Yau compactifications with vanishing four-cycle singularities, which are dual to $\IT^2$ compactifications of the six-dimensional non-critical string with $E_8$ symmetry. We define proper…
We propose a new family of matrix models whose 1/N expansion captures the all-genus topological string on toric Calabi-Yau threefolds. These matrix models are constructed from the trace class operators appearing in the quantization of the…
We consider compactifications of the matrix model of M-theory on $S^1/Z_2\times T^d$ for $d>0$, and interpret them as orbifolds of the supersymmetric U(N) Yang-Mills theory on $R\times T^{d+1}$. The orbifold group acts both on the gauge…
Recently, a correspondence has been proposed between spectral theory and topological strings on toric Calabi-Yau manifolds. In this paper we develop in detail this correspondence for mirror curves of higher genus, which display many new…
We review the relation between Chern-Simons gauge theory and topological string theory on noncompact Calabi-Yau spaces. This relation has made possible to give an exact solution of topological string theory on these spaces to all orders in…