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Fractional superstrings are recently-proposed generalizations of the traditional superstrings and heterotic strings. They have critical spacetime dimensions which are less than ten, and in this paper we investigate model-building for the…
Using the N=4, 1D harmonic superspace approach, we construct a new type of N=4 supersymmetric mechanics involving 4n-dimensional Quaternion-K\"ahler (QK) 1D sigma models as the bosonic core. The basic ingredients of our construction are…
We introduce a formalism for conformal field theory in four dimensions: a symplectic bi-Grassmannian representation of CFT$_4$ Wightman correlators. Working in Klein space with off-shell spinor-helicity variables, we show that correlators…
In this paper we explore the relation between conformal superalgebras with 64 supercharges and maximal supergravity theories in three, four and six dimensions using twistorial oscillator techniques. The massless fields of N=8 supergravity…
The author has previously suggested that the ground state for 4-dimensional quantum gravity can be represented as a condensation of non-linear gravitons connected by Dirac strings. In this note we suggest that the low-lying excitations of…
This paper presents a projective superspace formulation for 4D N = 2 matter-coupled supergravity. We first describe a variant superspace realization for the N = 2 Weyl multiplet. It differs from that proposed by Howe in 1982 by the choice…
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…
All the supersymmetric configurations of pure, ungauged, N=4,d=4 supergravity are classified in a formalism that keeps manifest the S and T dualities of the theory. We also find simple equations that need to be satisfied by the…
We consider the role of N=4 conformal supergravity in the relation between N=4 SYM theory and D=5 gauged supergravity expanded near the Anti de Sitter background. We discuss the structure of the SYM effective action in conformal…
Quaternion Kahler manifolds are known to be the target spaces for matter hypermultiplets coupled to N=2 supergravity. It is also known that there is a one-to-one correspondence between 4n-dimensional quaternion Kahler manifolds and those…
We construct a covariant description of non-critical superstrings in even dimensions. We construct explicitly supersymmetric hybrid type variables in a linear dilaton background, and study an underlying N=2 twisted superconformal algebra…
This thesis is devoted to the construction of theories describing the consistent propagation of (super)conformal higher-spin fields on curved three- and four-dimensional (super)spaces. In the first half of this thesis we systematically…
Using the U(4) formalism developed ten years ago, the worldsheet action for the superstring in Ramond-Ramond plane wave backgrounds is expressed in a manifestly N=(2,2) superconformally invariant manner. This simplifies the construction of…
In a previous paper with Gibbons [CMP 120 (1987) 295] we derived a list of three dimensional symmetric space $\sigma$-model obtained by dimensional reduction of a class of four dimensional gravity theories with abelian gauge fields and…
Asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes with Poincare invariance along the boundary can describe, via the AdS/CFT correspondence, either relevant deformations of a conformal field theory or non-conformal vacuum states. I consider examples…
In this thesis we study string compactifications on manifolds equipped with a $G$-structure, placing a special emphasis on the interplay between geometry and physics. We follow two complementary approaches. In the first part of the thesis…
We analyze the superfield equations of the 4-dimensional N=4 SYM-theory using light-cone gauge conditions and the harmonic-superspace approach. The harmonic superfield equations of motion are drastically simplified in this gauge, in…
We study mass deformations of $\mathcal{N}=4$, $d=4$ SYM theory that are spatially modulated in one spatial dimension and preserve some residual supersymmetry. We focus on generalisations of $\mathcal{N}=1^*$ theories and show that it is…
We review the holographic correspondence between field theories and string/M theory, focusing on the relation between compactifications of string/M theory on Anti-de Sitter spaces and conformal field theories. We review the background for…
In the present investigation we consider the possibility of having new massive, higher spin W-supergravity theories, which do not exist as four-dimensional perturbative models. These theories are based on a double copy construction of two…