Related papers: Topological field theories, string backgrounds and…
We discuss general properties of classical string field theories with symmetric vertices in the context of deformation theory. For a given conformal background there are many string field theories corresponding to different decomposition of…
Recent algebraic structures of string theory, including homotopy Lie algebras, gravity algebras and Batalin-Vilkovisky algebras, are deduced from the topology of the moduli spaces of punctured Riemann spheres. The principal reason for these…
In this article we describe an algebraic framework which can be used in three related but different contexts: string topology, symplectic field theory, and Lagrangian Floer theory of higher genus. It turns out that the relevant algebraic…
In this paper, we examine the analogy between topological string theory and equivariant cohomology. We also show that the equivariant cohomology of a topological conformal field theory carries a certain algebraic structure, which we call a…
We revisit the existence, background independence and uniqueness of closed, open and open-closed bosonic- and topological string field theory, using the machinery of homotopy algebra. In a theory of classical open- and closed strings, the…
This is a survey of various types of Floer theories (both in symplectic geometry and gauge theory) and relations among them.
Given two conformal field theories related to each other by a marginal perturbation, and string field theories constructed around such backgrounds, we show how to construct explicit redefinition of string fields which relate these two…
We review the relation between homotopy algebras of conformal field theory and geometric structures arising in sigma models. In particular we formulate conformal invariance conditions, which in the quasi-classical limit are Einstein…
We construct and fully characterize a scalar boundary conformal field theory on a triangulated Riemann surface. The results are analyzed from a string theory perspective as tools to deal with open/closed string dualities.
We prove the decomposition theorem for the loop homotopy algebra of quantum closed string field theory and use it to show that closed string field theory is unique up to gauge transformations on a given string background and given S-matrix.…
We present a classical conformal field theory on an arbitrary two-dimensional spacetime background. The dynamical object is a space-filling string, and the evolution may be thought as occurring on the manifold of the conformal group. The…
From higher dimensional theories, e.g. string theory, one expects the presence of non-minimally coupled scalar fields. We review the notion of conformal frames in cosmology and emphasize their physical equivalence, which holds at least at a…
Topological conformal field theories are defined using only basic results from the theory of quasiconformal mappings.
I discuss the general formalism of two-dimensional topological field theories defined on open-closed oriented Riemann surfaces, starting from an extension of Segal's geometric axioms. Exploiting the topological sewing constraints allows for…
These are notes of a series of lectures on mirror symmetry and topological string theory given at the Mathematical Sciences Center at Tsinghua University. The N=2 superconformal algebra, its deformations and its chiral ring are reviewed. A…
It is shown that background fields of a topological character usually introduced as such in compactified string theories correspond to quantum degrees of freedom which parametrise the freedom in choosing a representation of the zero mode…
The connection between Riemann surfaces with boundaries and the theory of vertex operator algebras is discussed in the framework of conformal field theories defined by Kontsevich and Segal and in the framework of their generalizations in…
In three spacetime dimensions, general relativity becomes a topological field theory, whose dynamics can be largely described holographically by a two-dimensional conformal field theory at the ``boundary'' of spacetime. I review what is…
Homotopy algebra and its involutive generalisation plays an important role in the construction of string field theory. I will review recent progress in these applications of homotopy algebra and its relation to moduli spaces.
Toroidal backgrounds for bosonic strings are used to understand target space duality as a symmetry of string field theory and to study explicitly issues in background independence. Our starting point is the notion that the string field…