Related papers: Open string amplitudes and large order behavior in…
We study the topological B-model on a deformed $\Z_2$ orbifolded conifold by investigating variation of complex structures via quantum Kodaira-Spencer theories. The fermionic/brane formulation together with systematic utilization of…
We use the boundary state formalism for the bosonic string to calculate the emission amplitude for closed string states from particular D-branes. We show that the amplitudes obtained are exactly the same as those obtained from the…
We explore the ideas of open-closed-open triality within twisted holography. Starting from two transverse stacks of branes in the B-model on the resolved conifold, we obtain two equivalent open string descriptions. Both are full-fledged…
We derive fully covariant expressions for all two-point scattering amplitudes involving closed string tachyon and massless strings from Dirichlet brane in type 0 theories. The amplitude for two massless D-brane fluctuations to produce…
We consider a sigma model formulation of open string theory with boundary fermions carrying Chan-Paton charges at the string ends. This formalism is particularly suitable for studying world-volume potentials on D-branes. We perform explicit…
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…
When many fundamental strings are stacked together, they puff up into D-branes. BIons and giant gravitons are the examples of such D-brane configurations that arise from coincident strings. We propose and demonstrate analogous transitions…
We use the operator formalism to derive the bosonic contribution to the twisted open string partition function in toroidal compactifications. This amplitude describes, for instance, the planar interaction between g+1 magnetized or…
We study the Fayet-Iliopoulos (FI) D-terms on D-branes in type II Calabi-Yau backgrounds. We provide a simple worldsheet proof of the fact that, at tree level, these terms only couple to scalars in closed string hypermultiplets. At the…
This thesis presents several new insights on the interface between mathematics and theoretical physics, with a central role for fermions on Riemann surfaces. First of all, the duality between Vafa-Witten theory and WZW models is embedded…
We compute the imaginary parts of genus-one string scattering amplitudes. Following Witten's $i\varepsilon$ prescription for the integration contour on the moduli space of worldsheets, we give a general algorithm for computing unitarity…
In these lectures, we review the main properties of the topological theory obtained by twisting the N=2 two-dimensional superconformal algebra, associated to supersymmetric string compactifications. In particular, we describe a set of…
Sinha and Vafa had conjectured that the $SO$ Chern-Simons gauge theory on $S^3$ must be dual to the closed $A$-model topological string on the orientifold of a resolved conifold. Though the Chern-Simons free energy could be rewritten in…
The $R^2 F^{2g-2}$ terms of Type IIA strings on Calabi-Yau 3-folds, which are given by the corresponding topological string amplitudes (a worldsheet instanton sum for all genera), are shown to have a simple M-theory interpretation. In…
We argue that topological matrix models (matrix models of the Kontsevich type) are examples of exact open/closed duality. The duality works at finite N and for generic `t Hooft couplings. We consider in detail the paradigm of the Kontsevich…
We derive fully covariant expressions for disk scattering amplitudes of any two massless closed strings in which mixed Neumann and Dirichlet world-sheet boundary conditions are included. From the two-point amplitudes, we derive the long…
We study deformations of topological closed strings. A well-known example is the perturbation of a topological closed string by itself, where the associative OPE product is deformed, and which is governed by the WDVV equations. Our main…
Recent investigations involving the decay of unstable D-branes in string theory suggest that the tree level open string theory which describes the dynamics of the D-brane already knows about the closed string states produced in the decay of…
In this review we describe our current understanding of the properties of open string tachyons on an unstable D-brane or brane-antibrane system in string theory. The various string theoretic methods used for this study include techniques of…
In this paper we study the conjectured dual operators to a near maximal giant graviton and their open string fluctuations in the large $N$ limit. Using matrix model estimates we show that the spectrum of states near the D-brane operator is…