Related papers: Exact string backgrounds from WZW models based on …
We discuss non-compact WZW sigma models, especially the ones with symmetric space $H^{\bf C}/H$ as the target, for $H$ a compact Lie group. They offer examples of non-rational conformal field theories. We remind their relation to the…
The Verlinde formula computes the dimension of certain vector spaces ("conformal blocks") associated to a Rational Conformal Field Theory. In this paper we show how this can be made rigorous for one particular such theory, the WZW model.…
We return to and refine Zwiebach's formulation of closed string field theory (CSFT) built around non-critical backgrounds [1,2], restricting our attention to genus zero. The structure involves a special string state $F$ that encodes the…
These lecture notes provide a comprehensive introduction to 2d conformal field theory, covering foundational topics such as free fields, minimal models, Zamolodchikov's $c$-theorem, Wess-Zumino-Witten models, modular invariant partition…
The elements of $O(d,d,\Z)$ are shown to be discrete symmetries of the space of curved string backgrounds that are independent of $d$ coordinates. The explicit action of the symmetries on the backgrounds is described. Particular attention…
We study D-branes in the Lorentzian signature 2D black hole string theory. We use the technique of gauged WZW models to construct the associated boundary conformal field theories. The main focus of this work is to discuss the…
The duality symmetries of WZW and coset models are discussed. The exact underlying symmetry responsible for semiclassical duality is identified with the symmetry under affine Weyl transformations. This identification unifies the treatement…
We show that the conformal characters of various rational models of W-algebras can be already uniquely determined if one merely knows the central charge and the conformal dimensions. As a side result we develop several tools for studying…
We consider a 4d non-linear sigma model on the coset $(\mathrm{SU}(N)_L \times \mathrm{SU}(N)_R \times \mathrm{SU}(2))/(\mathrm{SU}(N)_{L+R}\times \mathrm{U}(1))\cong \mathrm{SU}(N) \times S^2$, that features a topological…
A new method of gauging of WZNW models is presented, leading to a class of exact string solutions with a target space metric of Minkowskian signature. The corresponding models may be interpreted as $\sigma$-model analogues of the Toda field…
A large class of cosmological solutions (of the Einstein equations) in string theory, in the presence of Maxwell fields, is obtained by $O(d,d)$ transformations of simple backgrounds with $d$ toroidal isometries. In all the examples in…
We investigate a string model defined by a special plane-wave metric ds^2 = 2dudv - l(u) x^2 du^2 + dx^2 with l(u) = k/u^2 and k=const > 0. This metric is a Penrose limit of some cosmological, Dp-brane and fundamental string backgrounds.…
We present a number of D=4 bosonic and heterotic string solutions with a covariantly constant null Killing vector which, like the solution of Nappi and Witten (NW), correspond to (gauged) WZW models and thus have a direct conformal field…
WZW models are abstract conformal field theories with an infinite dimensional symmetry which accounts for their integrability, and at the same time they have a sigma model description of closed string propagation on group manifolds which,…
We construct an exact CFT as an SL(2,R)xSU(2)/U(1)^2 gauged WZW model, which describes a black hole in 4 dimensions. Another exact solution, describing a black membrane in 4D (in the sense that the event horizon is an infinite plane) is…
We consider correlation functions in Neveu--Schwarz string theory coupled to two dimensional gravity. The action for the 2D gravity consists of the string induced Liouville action and the Jackiw--Teitelboim action describing pure 2D…
We couple the 2D black-hole conformal field theory discovered by Witten to a $D-1$ dimensional Euclidean bosonic string. We demonstrate that the resulting planar (=zero genus) string susceptibility is real for any $0\leq D \leq 4$.
We review recent developments in the construction of heterotic and type II string field theories and their various applications. These include systematic procedures for determining the shifts in the vacuum expectation values of fields under…
We discuss a Coulomb gas realization of $n$-point correlation functions in the $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$ Wess-Zumino-Witten (WZW) model that is suitable to compute scattering amplitudes of winding strings in 3-dimensional Anti-de Sitter space at…
A brief overview of strings propagating on noncompact coset spaces G/H is presented in terms of WZW models. The role played by isometries in the existence of target space duality and by fixed points of the gauge transformations in the…