Related papers: Shadows and Twisted Variables
The uniqueness theorems for general relativity and Yang-Mills theories can be circumvented by dropping the ubiquitous, yet often implicit, assumption that physical fields, such as the spacetime metric, are fundamental. The novel concept of…
We examine a generalisation of the usual self-duality equations for Yang-Mills theory when the colour space admits a non-trivial involution. This involution allows us to construct a non-trivial twist which may be combined with the Hodge…
Recent development in numerical simulations of supersymmetric Yang-Mills (SYM) theories on the lattice is reviewed.
Recently, gauge field theory approaches were extensively used in order to discuss the physical consequences of spin-orbit interactions in condensed matter physics. An SU(2)$\times$U(1) gauge theory is very naturally borne out and provides…
We present an explicit formulation of supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories from $\D=$ 5 to 10 dimensions in the familiar $\N=1,\D=4$ superspace. This provides the rules for globally supersymmetric model building with extra dimensions and in…
These are expository lectures reviewing (1) recent developments in two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory, and (2) the construction of topological field theory Lagrangians. Topological field theory is discussed from the point of view of…
Contribution to the Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians 1994. We review recent developments in the physics and mathematics of Yang-Mills theory in two dimensional spacetimes. This is a condensed version of a…
In this note, we present a novel formulation of 4d pure Yang-Mills theory within the unfolded framework of Vasiliev higher-spin gravity. This formulation is first-order and exhibits manifest diffeomorphism and gauge invariance. Our approach…
In supersymmetric theories, protected quantities can be reorganized into holomorphic-topological theories by twisting. Recently, it was observed by Jonsson, Kim and Young that residual super-Poincar\'e symmetries in certain twisted theories…
We introduce new variables in four dimensional SU(N) Yang-Mills theory. These variables emerge when we sum the path integral over classical solutions and represent the summation as an integral over appropriate degrees of freedom. In this…
Studying a quantum field theory involves a choice of space-time manifold and a choice of background for any global symmetries of the theory. We argue that many more choices are possible when specifying the background. In the context of…
The construction of effective field theories describing M-theory compactified on $S^1/{\bf Z}_2$ is revisited, and new insights into the parameters of the theory are explained. Particularly, the web of constraints which follow from…
We study N=1 field theories with a U(1)_R symmetry on compact four-manifolds M. Supersymmetry requires M to be a complex manifold. The supersymmetric theory on M can be described in terms of conventional fields coupled to background…
Tree-level scattering amplitudes of particles have a geometrical description in terms of intersection numbers of pairs of twisted differential forms on the moduli space of Riemann spheres with punctures. We customize a catalog of twisted…
Observables of topological Yang-Mills theory were defined by Witten as the classes of an equivariant cohomology. We propose to define them alternatively as the BRST cohomology classes of a superspace version of the theory, where BRST…
We give a self-contained introduction to the theory of Turaev's shadows as a tool to study 3 and 4-manifolds. The goal of the present paper twofold: on one side it is intended to be a shortcut to a basic use of the theory of shadows, on the…
Field theories with p-form gauge potentials can possess ``hidden'' symmetries leaving the field strengths invariant on-shell without being gauge symmetries on-shell. The relevance of such symmetries to supersymmetric models is discussed.…
These notes were given as lectures at the CERN Winter School on Supergravity, Strings and Gauge Theory 2010. We describe the structure of scattering amplitudes in gauge theories, focussing on the maximally supersymmetric theory to highlight…
In this review, we give a pedagogical introduction to a systematic framework for constructing and analyzing supersymmetric field theories on curved spacetime manifolds. The framework is based on the use of off-shell supergravity background…
The aim of these notes is to provide a short introduction to supersymmetric theories: supersymmetric quantum mechanics, Wess-Zumino models and supersymmetric gauge theories. A particular emphasis is put on the underlying structures and…