Related papers: New Higgs Transitions between Dual N=2 String Mode…
We perform a path-integral analysis of the string representation of the dual Abelian Higgs (DAH) model beyond the London limit, where the string describing the vortex of a flux tube has a finite thickness. We show that besides an additional…
We exhibit $N=1$ supersymmetric field theories in confining, Coulomb and Higgs phases. The superpotential and the gauge kinetic terms are holomorphic and can be determined exactly in the various phases. The Coulomb phase generically has…
We study the geometric realization of the Higgs phenomenon in type II string compactifications on Calabi--Yau manifolds. The string description is most directly phrased in terms of confinement of magnetic flux, with magnetic charged states…
The subject of this thesis are various ways to construct four-dimensional quantum field theories from string theory. In a first part we study the generation of a supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, coupled to an adjoint chiral superfield,…
We study the four-dimensional N=2 superconformal field theories that describe D3-branes probing the recently constructed N=2 S-folds in F-theory. We introduce a novel, infinite class of superconformal field theories related to S-fold…
In this paper we show how S-duality of type IIB superstrings leads to an S-duality relating A and B model topological strings on the same Calabi-Yau as had been conjectured recently: D-instantons of the B-model correspond to A-model…
We study various aspects of N=2 quiver-Chern-Simons theories, conjectured to be dual to M2-branes at toric Calabi-Yau four-fold singularities, under Higgsing. In particular we study in detail the orbifold C^4/Z_2^3, obtaining a number of…
A novel model embedding the two Higgs doublets in the popular two Higgs doublet models into a doublet of a non-abelian gauge group $SU(2)_H$ is presented. The Standard Model $SU(2)_L$ right-handed fermion singlets are paired up with new…
Lorentz-invariant expectation values for antisymmetric tensor field strengths in Calabi-Yau compactification of IIA string theory are considered. These are found to impart magnetic and/or electric charges to the dilaton hypermultiplet. This…
By fibering the duality between the $E_{8}\times E_{8}$ heterotic string on $T^{3}$ and M-theory on K3, we study heterotic duals of M-theory compactified on $G_{2}$ orbifolds of the form $T^{7}/\mathbb{Z}_{2}^{3}$. While the heterotic…
We investigate the phase transition in the three-dimensional abelian Higgs model for N complex scalar fields, using the gauge-invariant average action \Gamma_{k}. The dependence of \Gamma_{k} on the effective infra-red cut-off k is…
We analyse different N=4 supergravities coupled to six vector multiplets corresponding to low-energy descriptions of the bulk sector of T6/Z2 orientifolds with p-brane in IIB (p odd) and in IIA (p even) superstrings. When fluxes are turned…
We discuss perturbative four-dimensional compactifications of both the SO(32) heterotic and the Type I string on smooth Calabi-Yau manifolds endowed with general non-abelian and abelian bundles. We analyse the generalized Green-Schwarz…
We consider type IIA/B strings in two-dimensions and their projection with respect to the nilpotent space-time supercharge. Based on the ground ring structure, we propose a duality between perturbed type II strings and the topological…
We investigate the phase diagram and the nature of the phase transitions of three-dimensional lattice gauge-Higgs models obtained by gauging the Z_N subgroup of the global Z_q invariance group of the Z_q clock model (N is a submultiple of…
A large class of duality cascades based on quivers arising from non-isolated singularities enjoy adjoint transitions - a phenomenon which occurs when the gauge coupling of a node possessing adjoint matter is driven to strong coupling in a…
We investigate the phase diagram and critical behavior of three-dimensional multicomponent Abelian-Higgs models, in which an N-component complex field z_x^a of unit length and charge is coupled to compact quantum electrodynamics in the…
In conventional gauge theory, a charged point particle is described by a representation of the gauge group. If we propagate the particle along some path, the parallel transport of the gauge connection acts on this representation. The…
This article is based on the author's PhD--thesis. We study geometric transitions on the supergravity level using the basic idea of arXiv:hep-th/0403288, where a pair of non-Kaehler backgrounds was constructed, which are related by a…
We analyze the phase structure of topological Calabi--Yau manifolds defined on the moduli space of instantons. We show in this framework that topological vacua describe new phases of the Heterotic String theory in which the flat directions…