Related papers: Untwisting Topological Field Theories
This is a pedagogical review article surveying the various approaches towards understanding gauge coupling unification within string theory. As is well known, one of the major problems confronting string phenomenology has been an apparent…
We construct a new class of exact and stable superstring solutions based on $N=4$ superconformal world-sheet symmetry. In a subclass of these, the full spectrum of string excitations is derived in a modular-invariant way. In the weak…
We study duals to field theories in two dimensions with N=(4,4) SUSY. The string backgrounds reproduce certain non-perturbative aspects of the dual field theory with a large number of colors N_c and a tunable number of flavors N_f.…
6-dimensional superconformal field theories are exotic and fascinating. They emerge from compactifications of F-theory on Calabi-Yau elliptic fibrations, which grants them a rich array of dualities with various other formulations of string…
In these two lectures, delivered at the XXXVII Karpacz Winter School, February 2001, I review some applications of superspace in various topics related to string theory and M-theory. The first lecture is mainly devoted to descriptions of…
Some relationships between string theories and eleven-dimensional supergravity are discussed and reviewed. We see how some relationships can be derived from others. The cases of N=2 supersymmetry in nine dimensions and N=4 supersymmetry in…
It is shown that all possible N sheeted coverings of the cylinder are contained in type IIA matrix string theory as non-trivial gauge field configurations. Using these gauge field configurations as backgrounds the large $N$ limit is shown…
Double Field Theory describes the NS-NS sector of string theory and lives on a doubled spacetime. The theory has a local gauge symmetry generated by a generalization of the Lie derivative for doubled coordinates. For the action to be…
Dual superconformal invariance has recently emerged as a hidden symmetry of planar scattering amplitudes in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory. This symmetry can be made manifest by expressing amplitudes in terms of `momentum twistors', as opposed…
We study string theory on orbifolds in the presence of an antisymmetric constant background field in detail and discuss some of new aspects of the theory. It is pointed out that the term with the antisymmetric background field can be…
$N=2$ string theories are formulated in space-times with 2 space and 2 time dimensions. If the world-sheet matter system consists of 2 chiral superfields, the space-time is Kahler and the dynamics are those of anti-self-dual gravity. If…
An infinite number of topological conformal algebras with varying central charges are explicitly shown to be present in $2d$ gravity (treated both in the conformal gauge and in the light-cone gauge) coupled to minimal matter. The central…
I briefly review how supersymmetry helps in the extraction of exact nonperturbative information from field theories, and then discuss some open problems in strongly coupled gauge theories. (Talk given at ``30 Years of Supersymmetry''…
I summarize and discuss some recent results on formulating actions of six-dimensional superconformal field theories using the language of higher gauge theory. The latter guarantees mathematical consistency of our constructions and we review…
What is quantum geometry? This question is becoming a popular leitmotiv in theoretical physics and in mathematics. Conformal field theory may catch a glimpse of the right answer. We review global aspects of the geometry of conformal fields,…
Recently, Witten proposed a topological string theory in twistor space that is dual to a weakly coupled gauge theory. In this lectures we will discuss aspects of the twistor string theory. Along the way we will learn new things about…
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…
We discuss the possible applications of string theory for the construction of generalizations of the $SU(3)\times SU(2)\times U(1)$ standard model of strong and electroweak interactions. This includes an investigation of effective $d=4$…
Field theories with p-form gauge potentials can possess ``hidden'' symmetries leaving the field strengths invariant on-shell without being gauge symmetries on-shell. The relevance of such symmetries to supersymmetric models is discussed.…
The four-dimensional superstring solutions define at low energy effective supergravity theories. A class of them extends successfully the validity of the standard model up to the string scale (${\cal O}(10^{17})~TeV$). We stress the…