Related papers: The Incredible Shrinking Torus
Abstrct: We show that the action of self-dual supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in four-dimensions, which describes the consistent massless background fields for $~N=2$~ superstring, generates the actions for $~N=1$~ and $~N=2$~…
An introductory survey of some of the developments that have taken place in superstring theory in the past few years is presented. The main focus is on three particular dualities. The first one is the appearance of an 11th dimension in the…
This paper proposes a concrete model of nonuniversal gaugino masses on the basis of higher-dimensional supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories compactified on a magnetized factorizable torus, and we estimate the gauge coupling constants and…
We consider F/M/Type IIA theory compactified to four, three, or two dimensions on a Calabi-Yau four-fold, and study the behavior near an isolated singularity in the presence of appropriate fluxes and branes. We analyze the vacuum and…
We study aspects of Calabi-Yau four-folds as compactification manifolds of F-theory, using mirror symmetry of toric hypersurfaces. Correlation functions of the topological field theory are determined directly in terms of a natural ring…
We compute Yukawa couplings involving chiral matter fields in toroidal compactifications of higher dimensional super-Yang-Mills theory with magnetic fluxes. Specifically we focus on toroidal compactifications of D=10 super-Yang-Mills…
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,…
The planar scattering amplitudes of $\mathcal{N} = 4$ super-Yang--Mills theory display symmetries and structures which underlie their relatively simple analytic properties such as having only logarithmic singularities and no poles at…
We define supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on an arbitrary two-dimensional lattice (polygon decomposition) with preserving one supercharge. When a smooth Riemann surface $\Sigma_g$ with genus $g$ emerges as an appropriate continuum limit of…
We study the duality between M-theory compactified on Calabi-Yau fourfolds and the heterotic string compactified on Calabi-Yau threefolds times a circle. Our analysis is based on a comparison of the low energy effective actions in three…
We propose an exotic geometric M-theory dual for the weak coupling Type 0A string: compactification on a sub-Planckian $S^1\vee S^1$ (two circles connected at a point), where strong quantum effects lead to fields living on distinct…
Dualities are often supposed to be foundational, but they may come into conflict with background independence, because a hidden fixed structures is needed to define the duality transformation. This conflict can be eliminated by extending a…
We consider cosmological solutions of string and M-theory compactified to four dimensions by giving a general prescription to construct four-dimensional modular cosmologies with two commuting Killing vectors from vacuum solutions. By…
We study a decoupling limit of M-theory where the three-form gauge potential becomes critical. This limit leads to nonrelativistic M-theory coupled to a non-Lorentzian spacetime geometry. Nonrelativistic M-theory is U-dual to M-theory in…
These are notes based on lectures given at TASI99. We review the geometry of the moduli space of N=2 theories in four dimensions from the point of view of superstring compactification. The cases of a type IIA or type IIB string compactified…
The low-energy properties of a compactified five-dimensional gauge theory can be reproduced in a four-dimensional theory with a replicated gauge group and an appropriate gauge symmetry breaking pattern. The lightest vector bosons in these…
The matrix theory description of the discrete light cone quantization of $M$ theory on a $T^{2}$ is studied. In terms of its super Yang- Mills description, we identify symmetries of the equations of motion corresponding to independent…
Various recently developed connections between supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories in four dimensions and two dimensional integrable systems serve as crucial ingredients in improving our understanding of the AdS/CFT correspondence. In this…
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…
By studying the partition function of $N=4$ topologically twisted supersymmetric Yang-Mills on four-manifolds, we make an exact strong coupling test of the Montonen-Olive strong-weak duality conjecture. Unexpected and exciting links are…