Related papers: Solving the strongly coupled 2D gravity III: Strin…
The strong coupling physics of two dimensional gravity at C=7, 13, 19 is deciphered, by building up on previous works along the same line (for a recent review, of the background material, see hep-th/9408069). It is shown that chirality…
The strong coupling physics of two dimensional gravity at $C=7$, $13$, $19$ is summarized. It is based on a new set of local fields which do not preserve chirality. Thus this quantum number becomes ``deconfined'' in the strongly coupled…
On compactification to six spacetime dimensions, the fundamental heterotic string admits as a soliton a dual string whose effective worldsheet action couples to the background fields of the dual formulation of six-dimensional supergravity.…
A $D>2$ topological string is presented by coupling the $2d$ topological gravity with the twisted version of the $N=2$ superconformal matter with $c=3k/(k-2)$. The latter is shown to admit $k+1$ chiral primary fields from the…
The first chapters introduce briefly conformal theories, Moore and Seiberg polynomial equations and Gervais-Neveu quantization of Liouville theory. The next chapters present the original results of this thesis. First, the algebra of the…
We formulate quantum gravity in $2+\epsilon$ dimensions in such a way that the conformal mode is explicitly separated. The dynamics of the conformal mode is understood in terms of the oversubtraction due to the one loop counter term. The…
We study supervertices in six dimensional (2,0) supergravity theories, and derive supersymmetry non-renormalization conditions on the 4- and 6-derivative four-point couplings of tensor multiplets. As an application, we obtain exact…
We couple twisted non-compact N=(2,2) supersymmetric models to topological gravity in two dimensions. We propose expressions for the genus zero correlation functions based on a Kadomtsev-Petviashvili integrable hierarchy. Moreover, we prove…
The strong coupling limit of a quantum system is in general quite complicated, but in some cases a great simplification occurs: the strongly coupled limit is equivalent to the weakly coupled limit of some other system. In string theory…
We construct the strong-coupling series in 4d simplicial quantum gravity up to volume 38. It is used to calculate estimates for the string susceptibility exponent gamma for various modifications of the theory. It provides a very efficient…
We show that almost all string theories, including the bosonic string, the superstring and $W$-string theories, possess a twisted N=2 superconformal symmetry. This enables us to establish a connection between topological gravity and the…
A strong coupling limit of theories whose low-energy effective field theory is 5-dimensional N=8 supergravity is proposed in which the gravitational coupling becomes large. It is argued that, if this limit exists, it should be a…
We study topologically massive (2+1)-dimensional gravity with a negative cosmological constant. The masses of the linearized curvature excitations about AdS_3 backgrounds are not only shifted from their flat background values but, more…
We investigate the asymptotic Tower Weak Gravity Conjecture in weak coupling limits of open string theories with minimal supersymmetry in four dimensions, focusing for definiteness on gauge theories realized on 7-branes in F-theory.…
Starting from a topological gauge theory in two dimensions with symmetry groups $ISO(2,1)$, $SO(2,1)$ and $SO(1,2)$ we construct a model for gravity with non-trivial coupling to matter. We discuss the equations of motion which are connected…
We test various conjectures about quantum gravity for six-dimensional string compactifications in the framework of F-theory. Starting with a gauge theory coupled to gravity, we analyze the limit in K\"ahler moduli space where the gauge…
Pure massive gravity is strongly coupled at a certain low scale, known as Lambda_3. I show that the theory can be embedded into another one, with new light degrees of freedom, to increase the strong scale to a significantly larger value.…
We study 4D systems in which parameters of the theory have position dependence in one spatial direction. In the limit where these parameters jump, this can lead to 3D interfaces supporting localized degrees of freedom. A priori, this sort…
We formulate a topological theory in six dimensions with gauge group SO(3,3) which reduces to gravity on a four dimensional defect if suitable boundary conditions are chosen. In such a framework we implement the reflection automorphism of…
A model of two-dimensional quantum gravity that is the analog of the tensionless string is proposed. The gravitational constant ($k$) is the analog of the Regge slope ($\alpha^{'}$) and it shows that when $k \rightarrow \infty$, $2D$…