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The structure of stringy quantum corrections to four-dimensional effective theories is particularly interesting for string phenomenology and attempts to stabilize moduli. We consider the heterotic string compactified on a Calabi-Yau space.…
We show that the topological string partition function with D-branes on a compact Calabi-Yau manifold has new anomalies that spoil the recursive structure of the holomorphic anomaly equation and introduce dependence on wrong moduli (such as…
The study of the geometry of Calabi-Yau fourfolds is relevant for compactifications of string theory, M-theory, and F-theory to various dimensions. In the first part of this thesis, we study the action of mirror symmetry on two-dimensional…
The nonuniform black strings branch, which emerges from the critical Gregory-Laflamme string, is numerically constructed in dimensions 6 <= D <= 11 and extended into the strongly non-linear regime. All the solutions are more massive and…
Multiply-connected Calabi-Yau threefolds are of particular interest for both string theorists and mathematicians. Recently it was pointed out that one of the generic degenerations of these spaces (occurring at codimension one in moduli…
This elementary survey article was prepared for a talk at the 2016 Superschool on Derived Categories and D-branes. The goal is to outline an identification of the bounded derived category of coherent sheaves on a Calabi-Yau threefold with…
U(1) Chern-Simons theory is quantized canonically on manifolds of the form $M=\mathbb{R}\times\Sigma$, where $\Sigma$ is a closed orientable surface. In particular, we investigate the role of mapping class group of $\Sigma$ in the process…
It has been shown that non-Abelian solitonic vortex strings supported in four-dimensional (4D) ${\mathcal N}=2\;$ supersymmetric QCD (SQCD) with the U($N=2$) gauge group and $N_f=4$ quark flavors behave as critical superstrings. In addition…
A double scaling limit can be defined in string theory on a Calabi-Yau (CY) manifold by approaching a point in moduli space where the CY space develops an isolated singularity and at the same time taking the string coupling to zero, while…
We report two surprising results on $\alpha'$ corrections in string theory restricted to massless fields. First, for critical dimension Bianchi type I cosmologies with $q$ scale factors only $q-1$ of them have non-trivial $\alpha'$…
We study a family of unstable heterotic string theories in more than ten dimensions which are connected via tachyon condensation to the ten-dimensional supersymmetric vacuum of heterotic string theory with gauge group SO(32). Calculating…
We consider the Gopakumar-Ooguri-Vafa correspondence, relating ${\rm U}(N)$ Chern-Simons theory at large $N$ to topological strings, in the context of spherical Seifert 3-manifolds. These are quotients $\mathbb{S}^{\Gamma} =…
We examine the problem of counting bound states of BPS black holes on local Calabi-Yau threefolds which are fibrations over a Riemann surface by computing the partition function of q-deformed Yang-Mills theory on the Riemann surface. We…
We study the null orbifold singularity in 2+1 d flat space higher spin theory as well as string theory. Using the Chern-Simons formulation of 2+1 d Einstein gravity, we first observe that despite the singular nature of this geometry, the…
We begin a search for nonsupersymmetric/supersymmetric dual string pairs by constructing candidate critical nonsupersymmetric strings as solitons in supersymmetric string theories. Using orbifold techniques, one can construct cosmic string…
Type II theories can be described as the endpoint of closed string tachyon condensation in certain orbifolds of supercritical type 0 theories. In this paper, we study solitons of this closed string tachyon and analyze the nature of the…
We construct several examples of (2+1) dimensional N=2 supersymmetric Chern-Simons theories, whose moduli space is given by non-compact toric Calabi-Yau four-folds, which are not derivable from any (3+1) dimensional CFT. One such example is…
In four decades of string theory research, only a handful of non-supersymmetric tachyon-free strings with only one neutral scalar at tree level were found. We construct new such non-supersymmetric tachyon-free string theories using…
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 show that string duality relates M-theory on a local Calabi-Yau fourfold singularity X4 to type IIA string theory on a Calabi-Yau threefold X3 fibered over a real line, with RR 2-form fluxes turned on. The RR flux encodes how the…