Related papers: F Theory Orientifolds, M Theory Orientifolds, and …
We review the status of duality symmetries in superstring theories. These discrete symmetries mark the striking differences between theories of pointlike objects and theories of extended objects. They prove to be very helpful in…
Anomalous U(1) gauge symmetries in type II orientifold theories show some unexpected properties. In contrast to the heterotic case, the masses of the gauge bosons are in general of order of the string scale even in the absence of large…
We present special classes of orientifold models involving supersymmetry breaking via branes at angles. Type II superstring theories are compactified on a two torus times a four-dimensional orbifold. Combining worldsheet parity with a…
We review particle physics model building in type IIB string theory and F-theory. This is a region in the landscape where in principle many of the key ingredients required for a realistic model of particle physics can be combined…
A while ago, examples of N=1 vacua in D=6 were constructed as orientifolds of Type IIB string theory compactified on the K3 surface. Among the interesting features of those models was the presence of D5-branes behaving like small…
We study orbifolds of two-dimensional topological field theories using defects. If the TFT arises as the twist of a superconformal field theory, we recover results on the Neveu-Schwarz and Ramond sectors of the orbifold theory as well as…
An analysis of a special class of type II string theory compactifications is presented. We focus on recent work in one particular orientifold background of intersecting brane models and the resulting four dimensional gauge group and matter…
We present orientifold and F-theory duals of the heterotic string compactification constructed by Chaudhuri, Hockney and Lykken (CHL) which has the maximal supersymmetry but gauge group of reduced rank. The 8-dimensional dual is given by…
We show that two-dimensional SO(N) and Sp(N) Yang-Mills theories without fermions can be interpreted as closed string theories. The terms in the 1/N expansion of the partition function on an orientable or nonorientable manifold M can be…
We propose that generalized symmetries in some string-constructed QFTs are given by K-theory. We thus have \textit{even-form} and \textit{odd-form} symmetries determined by $K_N(\partial X)$, the twisted K-theory as D-brane charges on the…
The matrix model formulation of M-theory can be generalized by compactification to ten-dimensional type II string theory, formulated in the infinite momentum frame. Both the type IIA and IIB string theories can be formulated in this way. In…
The R^4-type corrections to ten and eleven dimensional supergravity required by string and M-theory imply corrections to supersymmetric supergravity compactifications on manifolds of special holonomy, which deform the metric away from the…
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 argue that two four-dimensional strongly coupled superconformal field theories, on the Higgs branch in certain large N limits, become respectively (2,0) theory and (1,1) little string theory in six dimensions. We identify the spectrum of…
We use F-theory to derive a general expression for the flux potential of type II compactifications with D7/D3 branes, including open string moduli and 2-form fluxes on the branes. Our main example is F-theory on K3 $\times$ K3 and its…
This paper, in a sense, completes a series of three papers. In the previous two hep-th/0404013, hep-th/0410293, we have explored the possibility of refining the K-theory partition function in type II string theories using elliptic…
We study orientifolds of type IIB string theory in the plane-wave background supported by null RR 3-form flux F^{(3)}. We describe how to extract the RR tadpoles in the Green-Schwarz formalism in a general setting. Two models with…
A systematic program is developed for analyzing and cancelling local anomalies on networks of intersecting orbifold planes in the context of M-theory. Through a delicate balance of factors, it is discovered that local anomaly matching on…
We describe a general method for deducing T-dualities of little string theories, which are dualities between these theories that arise when they are compactified on circle. The method works for both untwisted and twisted circle…
The D-brane spectrum of a class of $\Zop_2$ orbifolds of toroidally compactified Type IIA and Type IIB string theory is analysed systematically. The corresponding K-theory groups are determined and complete agreement is found. The charge…