Related papers: Threshold Corrections to Gauge Couplings in Orbifo…
We briefly review attempts to construct string theories that yield the standard model, concentrating on models with a geometric interpretation. Calabi-Yau compactifications are discussed in the context of both the weakly coupled heterotic…
We investigate compactifications with duality twists and their relation to orbifolds and compactifications with fluxes. Inequivalent compactifications are classified by conjugacy classes of the U-duality group and result in gauged…
We analyze a class of dual pairs of heterotic and type I models based on freely-acting $\mathbb{Z}_2 \times \mathbb{Z}_2$ orbifolds in four dimensions. Using the adiabatic argument, it is possible to calculate non-perturbative contributions…
On compactification to six spacetime dimensions, the fundamental heterotic string admits as a soliton a dual string whose effective worldsheet action couples to the background fields of the dual formulation of six-dimensional supergravity.…
We construct more dual pairs of type II-heterotic strings in four dimensions with $N=2,1$ spacetime supersymmetry. On the type II side the construction utilizes the various possible choices of K3 automorphisms with fixed points which…
We continue our study of compactifications of F-theory on Calabi--Yau threefolds. We gain more insight into F-theory duals of heterotic strings and provide a recipe for building F-theory duals for arbitrary heterotic compactifications on…
Closed string theories on orbifolds contain both untwisted and twisted states. The latter are normally assumed to live exactly at the orbifold fixed points. We perform a calculation of a gauge field tadpole amplitude and show that off-shell…
We study orbifold compactifications of F-theory which lead to $N=1$ supersymmetry in 6 and 4 spacetime dimensions. These are dual to specific orientifolds of M-theory, and in many cases to orientifolds of type IIB string theory. The…
We investigate orbifold compactifications of the heterotic string, addressing in detail their construction, classification and phenomenological potential. We present a strategy to search for models resembling the minimal supersymmetric…
I consider the construction of heterotic orbifold models based on a toroidal orbifold with non Abelian point group. I construct an explicit model based on the point group $S_3$ and calculate the spectrum and remnant symmetries. This model…
A Double Field Theory (DFT) description of gauge symmetry enhancing-breaking in the heterotic string is presented. The construction, based on previous results for the bosonic string, relies on the extension of the tangent frame of DFT. The…
In this thesis, we consider heterotic string vacua based on a warped product of a four-dimensional domain wall and a six-dimensional internal manifold preserving only two supercharges. Thus, they correspond to half-BPS states of heterotic…
We compute the corrections to heterotic-string backgrounds with (2,0) world-sheet supersymmetry, up to two loops in sigma-model perturbation theory. We investigate the conditions for these backgrounds to preserve spacetime supersymmetry and…
We clarify the role played by BPS states in the calculation of threshold corrections of D=4, N=2 heterotic string compactifications. We evaluate these corrections for some classes of compactifications and show that they are sums of…
We study the modular symmetry in magnetized $T^{2g}$ torus and orbifold models. The $T^{2g}$ torus has the modular symmetry $\Gamma_{g}=Sp(2g,\mathbb{Z})$. Magnetic flux background breaks the modular symmetry to a certain normalizer…
We investigate gauge coupling unification in higher dimensional GUT models with split supersymmetry. We focus on 5d and 6d orbifold GUTs, which permit a simple solution to several problems of 4D GUTs as well as control over GUT scale…
We present a few remarks on disconnected components of the moduli space of heterotic string compactifications on $T_2$. We show in particular how the eight dimensional CHL heterotic string can be understood in terms of topologically…
In a certain strong coupling limit, compactification of the $E_8\times E_8$ heterotic string on a Calabi-Yau manifold $X$ can be described by an eleven-dimensional theory compactified on $X\times \S^1/\Z_2$. In this limit, the usual…
Nontrivial twisted boundary conditions associated with extra compact dimensions produce an ambiguity in the value of the four dimensional coupling constants of the renormalizable interactions of the twisted fields' zero modes. Resolving…
The genus-dependence of multi-loop superstring amplitudes is bounded at large orders in perturbation theory using the super-Schottky group parametrization of supermoduli space. Partial estimates of supermoduli space integrals suggest an…