Related papers: Coset Models and Differential Geometry
Conformal sigma models and WZW models on coset superspaces provide important examples of logarithmic conformal field theories. They possess many applications to problems in string and condensed matter theory. We review recent results and…
An explanation of the origin of the hidden eleventh dimension in string theory is given. It is shown that any two sigma models describing the propagation of string backgrounds are related to each other by a Weyl transformation of the…
We will show how the study of randomly triangulated surfaces merges with the study of open/closed string dualities. In particular we will discuss the Conformal Field Theory which arises in the open string sector and its implications.
We study dynamics of scalar fields on a large class of geometries described by integrable sigma models. Although equations of motion are not separable due to absence of isometries and Killing tensors, we completely determine the spectra…
The existence of genuinely non-geometric backgrounds, i.e. ones without geometric dual, is an important question in string theory. In this paper we examine this question from a sigma model perspective. First we construct a particular class…
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…
I consider a three-dimensional string theory whose action, besides the standard area term, contains one of the form $\int_{\Sigma} \epsilon_{\mu\nu\sigma} X^{\mu} d X^{\nu} \wedge d X^{\sigma}$. In the case of closed strings this extra term…
Talk given at the ``4th Hellenic School on Elementary Particle Physics", Corfu, 2-20 September 1992: The propagation of strings in cosmological space-time backgrounds is reviewed. We show the relation of a special class of cosmological…
Beginning with a review of the arguments leading to the so-called c=1 barrier in the continuum formulation of noncritical string theory, the pathology is then exhibited in a discretized version of the theory, formulated through dynamical…
Diffusion-driven patterns appear on curved surfaces in many settings, initiated by unstable modes of an underlying Laplacian operator. On a flat surface or perfect sphere, the patterns are degenerate, reflecting translational/rotational…
A brief overview of strings propagating on noncompact coset spaces G/H is presented in terms of WZW models. The role played by isometries in the existence of target space duality and by fixed points of the gauge transformations in the…
We investigate the question of possible integrability of classical string motion in curved p-brane backgrounds. For example, the D3-brane metric interpolates between the flat and the AdS_5 x S^5 regions in which string propagation is…
A synthetic report of the advances in the study of classical and quantum string dynamics in curved backgrounds is provided, namely: the new feature of multistring solutions; the effect of a cosmological constant and of spacial curvature on…
Starting from a sigma-model for a doubled target-space geometry, we show that the number of target-space dimensions can be reduced by half through a gauging procedure. We apply this formalism to a class of backgrounds relevant for double…
Hidden symmetries of non-relativistic $\mathfrak{so} (2,1)\cong \mathfrak{sl}(2, {\mathbb R})$ invariant systems in a cosmic string background are studied using the conformal bridge transformation. Geometric properties of this background…
Non-geometric string backgrounds were proposed to be related to a non-associative deformation of the space-time geometry. In the flux formulation of double field theory (DFT), the structure of mathematically possible non-associative…
We study classical dynamics of cylindrical membranes wrapped around the extra compact dimension of a $(D+1)$-dimensional Riemann-Cartan spacetime. The world-sheet equations and boundary conditions are obtained from the universally valid…
This thesis is devoted to the construction of theories describing the consistent propagation of (super)conformal higher-spin fields on curved three- and four-dimensional (super)spaces. In the first half of this thesis we systematically…
This thesis considers two different aspects of string theory, the tensionless limit of the string and supersymmetric sigma models. The tensionless limit is used to find a IIB supergravity background generated by a tensionless string.…
A new field of discrete differential geometry is presently emerging on the border between differential and discrete geometry. Whereas classical differential geometry investigates smooth geometric shapes (such as surfaces), and discrete…