Related papers: A new class of spatially homogeneous 4D string bac…
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…
We classify the non-degenerate homogeneous hypersurfaces in real and complex affine four-space whose symmetry group is at least four-dimensional.
We determine the most general form of the antisymmetric $H$-field tensor derived from a purely time-dependent potential that is admitted by all possible spatially homogeneous cosmological models in 3+1-dimensional low-energy bosonic string…
We study string theory in supersymmetric time-dependent backgrounds. In the framework of general relativity, supersymmetry for spacetimes without flux implies the existence of a covariantly constant null vector, and a relatively simple form…
Homogeneous gravitational wave backgrounds arise as infinite momentum limits of many geometries with a well-understood holographic description. General global aspects of these geometries are discussed. Using exact CFT techniques, strings in…
It is shown that the Type IIA superstring compactified on $K3$ has a smooth string soliton with the same zero mode structure as the heterotic string compactified on a four torus, thus providing new evidence for a conjectured exact duality…
Families of anisotropic and inhomogeneous string cosmologies containing non-trivial dilaton and axion fields are derived by applying the global symmetries of the string effective action to a generalized Einstein-Rosen metric. The models…
We present a general algorithm which permits to construct solutions in string cosmology for heterotic and type-IIB superstrings in four dimensions. Using a chain of transformations applied in sequence: conformal, T-duality and SL(2,R)…
We write the type IIB worldsheet action in classes of bosonic curved backgrounds threaded with Ramond-Ramond fluxes. The fixing of the kappa symmetry in the light-cone gauge and the use of the Bianchi identities of the supergravity theory…
We review explicitly known exact $D=4$ solutions with Minkowski signature in closed bosonic string theory. Classical string solutions with space-time interpretation are represented by conformal sigma models. Two large (intersecting) classes…
We review recent progress in constructing realistic brane models from type I string vacua. Explicit models with three families of the standard model gauge group and its left-right generalizations are presented with supersymmetry broken at…
A homogeneous anisotropic four dimensional spacetime with Lorentzian signature is constructed from an ungauged WZW model based on a non-semisimple Lie group. The associated non-linear $\sigma $-model describes string propagation in an…
4-dimensional spaces equipped with 2-dimensional (complex holomorphic or real smooth) completely integrable distributions are considered. The integral manifolds of such distributions are totally null and totally geodesics 2-dimensional…
We classify $N{=}1$ $d=4$ kinematical and aristotelian Lie superalgebras with spatial isotropy, but not necessarily parity nor time-reversal invariance. Employing a quaternionic formalism which makes rotational covariance manifest and…
We explore the possibility of string theories in only four spacetime dimensions without any additional compactified dimensions. We show that, provided the theory is defined in curved spacetime that has a cosmological interpration, it is…
It is shown that perturbations around backgrounds with one non-homogeneous dimension, namely of co-homogeneity 1, can be canonically simplified, a property that is shown to hold to any order in perturbation theory. Recalling that the…
We solve the Killing spinor equations of ${\cal N}=1$ supergravity, with four supercharges, coupled to any number of vector and scalar multiplets in all cases. We find that backgrounds with N=1 supersymmetry admit a null, integrable,…
We consider a new 3-parameter class of exact 4-dimensional solutions in closed string theory and solve the corresponding string model, determining the physical spectrum and the partition function. The background fields (4-metric,…
Few vacua are known for the three tachyon-free non-supersymmetric string theories. We find new classes of AdS backgrounds by focusing on spaces where the equations of motion reduce to purely algebraic conditions. Our first examples involve…
We reconsider here the problem of finding the general 4D spherically symmetric, asymptotically flat and time-independent solutions to the lowest-order string equations in the $\ap$ expansion. Our construction includes earlier work, but…