Related papers: Dilaton, moduli and string/five-brane duality as s…
This thesis first gives a background and review of the article hep-th/0102038, where we substantiated a conjectured duality between two a priori unrelated gauge theories, N=2 quiver theory and N=2 Seiberg-Witten theory. These gauge theories…
The potential of a configuration of two Dirichlet branes for which the number of ND-directions is eight is determined. Depending on whether one of the branes is an anti-brane or a brane, the potential vanishes or is twice as large as the…
Under the six-dimensional heterotic/type $IIA$ duality map, a solitonic membrane solution of heterotic string theory transforms into a singular solution of type $IIA$ theory, and should therefore be interpreted as a fundamental membrane in…
By quantizing an open string ending on a D-brane in a nontrivial supergravity background, we argue that there is a new kind of uncertainty relation on a D-brane worldvolume. Furthermore, we fix the form of the uncertainty relations and…
The standard eleven-dimensional supergravity action depends on a three-form gauge field and does not allow direct coupling to five-branes. Using previously developed methods, we construct a covariant eleven-dimensional supergravity action…
We investigate Seiberg's N=1 field theory duality for four-dimensional supersymmetric QCD with the M-theory 5-brane. We find that the M-theory configuration for the magnetic dual theory arises via a smooth deformation of the M-theory…
A global superalgebra with 32 supercharges and all possible central extensions is studied in order to extract some general properties of duality and hidden dimensions in a theory that treats $p$-branes democratically. The maximal number of…
We consider configurations of D7-branes and whole and fractional D3-branes with N=2 supersymmetry. On the supergravity side these have a warp factor, three-form flux and a nonconstant dilaton. We discuss general IIB solutions of this type…
The conjectured equivalence of the heterotic string to a $K_3$ compactified type IIA superstring is combined with the conjectured equivalence of the latter to a compactified 11-dimensional supermembrane to derive a string membrane duality…
A non-local classical duality between the three-block truncated 11D supergravity and the 8D vacuum gravity with two commuting Killing symmetries is established. The supergravity four-form field is generated via an inverse dualisation of the…
This review is devoted to strings and branes. Firstly, perturbative string theory is introduced. The appearance of various types of branes is discussed. These include orbifold fixed planes, D-branes and orientifold planes. The connection to…
We construct new supersymmetric solutions of $D$=11 supergravity describing $n$ orthogonally ``overlapping" membranes and fivebranes for $n$=2,\dots,8. Overlapping branes arise after separating intersecting branes in a direction transverse…
We will report on recent advances in the understanding of non-perturbative interconnections between different string dualities. Weak-strong coupling duality (S-duality) and T-duality (symmetry under compactification on dual tori) allows one…
We describe a simple method for generating new string solutions for which the brane worldvolume is a curved space. As a starting point we use solutions with NS-NS charges combined with 2-d CFT's representing different parts of space-time.…
We consider Dirichlet p-branes in type II string theory on a space which has been toroidally compactified in d dimensions. We give an explicit construction of the field theory description of this system by putting a countably infinite…
In the fruitful interplay between gauge fields and strings and in many conjectured M-theory dualities, open strings play a prominent role. We review the construction of open-string descendants (un-orientifolds) of closed-string theories…
We analyse the cosmological implications of brane-antibrane systems in string-theoretic orbifold and orientifold models. In a class of realistic models, consistency conditions require branes and antibranes to be stuck at different fixed…
We study N=1 dualities in four dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories in terms of wrapping D 6-branes around 3-cycles of Calabi-Yau threefolds in type IIA string theory. We generalize the recent work of geometrical realization for the…
Membrane/fivebrane duality in D=11 implies Type IIA string/Type IIA fivebrane duality in D=10, which in turn implies Type IIA string/heterotic string duality in D=6. To test the conjecture, we reproduce the corrections to the 3-form field…
Solitonic brane cosmologies are found where the world-volume is curved due to the evolution of the dilaton field on the brane. In many cases, these may be related to the solitonic Dp- and M5-branes of string and M-theory. An…