Related papers: Fractional Superstrings with Space-Time Critical D…
Progress on string theory in curved spacetimes since 1992 are reviewed. After a short introduction on strings in Minkowski and curved spacetimes, we focus on strings in cosmological spacetimes. The classical behaviour of strings in FRW and…
Supersymmetric (pseudo-classical) mechanics has recently been generalized to {\it fractional}\/ supersymmetric mechanics. In such a construction, the action is invariant under fractional supersymmetry transformations, which are the…
Moddings by cyclic permutation symmetries are performed in 4-dimensional strings, built up from N=2 coset models of the type $CP_m=SU(m+1)/SU(m)\times U(1)$. For some exemplifying cases, the massless chiral and antichiral states of $E_6$…
The 26 dimensional bosonic string, first suggested by Nambu and Goto, is reduced to a four dimensional superstring by using two species of 6 and 5 Majorana fermions as proposed by Deo. These two species of fermions differ in their…
$N=2$ string theories are formulated in space-times with 2 space and 2 time dimensions. If the world-sheet matter system consists of 2 chiral superfields, the space-time is Kahler and the dynamics are those of anti-self-dual gravity. If…
The first part of this thesis is a general introduction to the bosonic and fermionic string theory, to the concept of D brane and to string dualities. A discussion of anomalies cancellation closes the chapter. The second part of the thesis…
Cosmic strings are linear concentrations of energy that form whenever phase transitions in the early universe break axial symmetries as originally shown by Kibble. They are the result of frustrated order in the quantum fields responsible…
This thesis consists of an introductory text, which is divided into two parts, and six appended research papers. The first part contains a general discussion on conformal and superconformal symmetry in six dimensions, and treats how the…
We give examples of string compactifications to 4d Minkowski space with different amounts of supersymmetry that can be connected by spherical domain walls. The tension of these domain walls is tunably lower than the 4d Planck scale. The…
In this lecture I summarize recent developments on strings propagating in curved spacetime. Exact conformal field theories that describe gravitational backgrounds such as black holes and more intricate gravitational singularities have been…
Free bosonic strings in noncommutative spacetime are investigated. The string spectrum is obtained in terms of light-cone quantization. We construct two different models. In the first model the critical dimension is still required to be 26…
Supersymmetry is deeply related to division algebras. Nonabelian Yang-Mills fields minimally coupled to massless spinors are supersymmetric if and only if the dimension of spacetime is 3, 4, 6 or 10. The same is true for the Green-Schwarz…
We show that 4-dimensional maximally symmetric spacetimes can be obtained from a coherent state quantisation of gravity, always resulting in geometries that approach the Minkowski vacuum exponentially away from the radius of curvature. A…
A time-dependent bosonic string configuration is discussed, in graviton and dilaton backgrounds, leading to Weyl-symmetry beta-functions which are homogeneous in X^0, to any order in alpha'. As a consequence, a string reparametrization can…
What is the dimension of spacetime? We address this question in the context of the AdS/CFT Correspondence. We give a prescription for computing the number of large bulk dimensions, $D$, from strongly-coupled CFT$_d$ data, where "large"…
In this note we investigate the generalised critical $N=2$ superstrings in $(1,2p)$ spacetime signature. We calculate the four-point functions for the tachyon operators of these theories. In contrast to the usual $N=2$ superstring in…
We study the low-energy dynamics of semi-classical vortex strings living above Argyres-Douglas superconformal field theories. The worldsheet theory of the string is shown to be a deformation of the CP^N model which flows in the infra-red to…
The recently introduced anomaly-free twistor string in four dimensions is shown to be defined not just in flat but also in curved twistor space. Further, arguments are given that the classical limit of the corresponding string field theory,…
The implications of string theory for understanding the dimension of uncompactified spacetime are investigated. Using recent ideas in string cosmology, a new model is proposed to explain why three spatial dimensions grew large. Unlike the…
The motion of a string in curved spacetime is discussed in detail. The basic formalism for string motion in Minkowski spacetime and in curved spacetime is presented. The description applies to cosmic strings as well as to fundamental…