Related papers: Euclidean D-branes and higher-dimensional gauge th…
In pure N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills with gauge group SU(N), the domain walls which separate the N vacua have been argued, on the basis of string theory realizations, to be D-branes for the confining string. In a certain limit, this means…
Phenomenological compactifications of M-theory involve 7-manifolds with G_2 holonomy and various singularities. Here we study local geometries with such singularities, by thinking of them as compactifications of 7d supersymmetric Yang-Mills…
The well-known Yang-Mills theory with one $ S^{1} / Z_{2}$ universal extra dimension (UED) is generalized to an arbitrary number of spatial extra dimensions through a novel compactification scheme. In this paper, the Riemannian flat based…
We describe various approaches that give matrix descriptions of compactified NS five-branes. As a result, we obtain matrix models for Yang-Mills theories with sixteen supersymmetries in dimensions $2,3,4$ and 5. The equivalence of the…
We construct a topological theory for euclidean gravity in four dimensions, by enforcing self-duality conditions on the spin connection. The corresponding topological symmetry is associated to the SU(2) X diffeomorphism X U(1) invariance.…
We discuss some properties of a supersymmetric matrix model that is the dimensional reduction of supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in ten dimensions and which has been recently argued to represent the short-distance structure of M theory in…
We review some aspects of the gravity duals of supersymmetric gauge theories, arising in the world-volume of D-branes wrapping supersymmetric cycles of special holonomy manifolds, within the framework of lower dimensional gauged…
We study M-theory on G_2 holonomy spaces that are constructed by dividing a seven-torus by some discrete symmetry group. We classify possible group elements that may be used in this construction and use them to find a set of possible…
We give a gauge-covariant formulation of seven-dimensional super-Yang-Mills theory in terms of N=1 superfields. Furthermore, we show that five and seven dimensions are the only cases where such a formulation exists by analysing the…
In the presence of a D-brane a string theory develops a new subsector. We show that for curved D-branes the corresponding sector is a (partially twisted) topological field theory. We use this result to compute the degeneracy of 2-branes…
We derive 4-dimensional N=4 U(N) supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory from a 3-dimensional Chern-Simons-matter theory with product gauge group U(N)^{2n}. The latter describes M2-branes probing an orbifold where a torus emerges in a scaling…
We consider D7-branes in the gauge theory/string theory correspondence, using a probe approximation. The D7-branes have four directions embedded holomorphically in a non-compact Calabi-Yau 3-fold (which for specificity we take to be the…
We consider compactifications of the matrix model of M-theory on $S^1/Z_2\times T^d$ for $d>0$, and interpret them as orbifolds of the supersymmetric U(N) Yang-Mills theory on $R\times T^{d+1}$. The orbifold group acts both on the gauge…
We uplift 5-dimensional super-Yang-Mills theory to a 6-dimensional gauge theory with the help of a space-like constant vector $\eta^M$, whose norm determines the Yang-Mills coupling constant. After the localization of $\eta^M$ the 6D gauge…
We investigate the local geometry on the moduli space of G_2 structures that arises in compactifications of M-theory on holonomy G_2 manifolds. In particular, we determine the homogeneity properties of couplings of the associated N=1, D=4…
T-Duality on a timelike circle does not interchange IIA and IIB string theories, but takes the IIA theory to a type $IIB^*$ theory and the IIB theory to a type $IIA^*$ theory. The type $II^*$ theories admit E-branes, which are the images of…
We consider an eight-dimensional local octonionic theory with the seven-sphere playing the role of the gauge group. Duality conditions for two- and four-forms in eight dimensions are related. Dual fields--octonionic instantons--solve an 8D…
We derive p+1-dimensional (p=1,2) maximally supersymmetric U(N) Yang-Mills theory from the wrapped supermembrane on $R^{11-p}\times T^{p}$ in the light-cone gauge by using the matrix regularization. The elements of the matrices in the super…
We study the supergravity dual of four-dimensional ${\mathcal{N}=1}$ superconformal field theories arising from wrapping M5-branes on a K\"ahler two-cycle inside a Calabi-Yau threefold. We derive an effective three-dimensional theory living…
The 2-brane and 4-brane solutions of ten dimensional IIA supergravity have a dual interpretation as Dirichlet-branes, or `D-branes', of type IIA superstring theory and as `M-branes' of an $S^1$-compactified eleven dimensional supermembrane…