Related papers: Anomalies, Branes, and Currents
In this thesis, we study aspects of D-brane realizations of the Standard Model. Specifically, we study orientifold models with rotation and translation elements that break supersymmetry, provide the general consistency conditions and derive…
We argue that a system of interacting D-branes, generalizing a recent proposal, can be modelled as a Quantum Hall fluid. We show that tachyon condensation in such a system is equivalent to one particle tunnelling. In a conformal field…
Lower-dimensional (hyper)surfaces that can carry gauge or gauge/gravitational anomalies occur in many areas of physics: one-plus-one-dimensional boundaries or two-dimensional defect surfaces in condensed matter systems, four-dimensional…
In some insulators, corner charges are fractionally quantized, due to the topological invariant called a filling anomaly. The previous theories of fractional corner charges have been mostly limited to two-dimensional systems. In three…
We propose a way of computing 4-manifold invariants, old and new, as chiral correlation functions in half-twisted 2d $\mathcal{N}=(0,2)$ theories that arise from compactification of fivebranes. Such formulation gives a new interpretation of…
We derive the fermion bilinear terms in the world volume action for a D3 brane in the presence of background flux. In six-dimensional compactifications non-perturbative corrections to the superpotential can arise from an Euclidean D3-brane…
We explain how D-branes on group manifolds are stabilized against shrinking by quantized worldvolume U(1) fluxes. Starting from the Born-Infeld action in the case of the SU(2) group manifold we derive the masses, multiplicities and spectrum…
We derive a novel deformation of the warped resolved conifold background with supersymmetry breaking ISD (1,2) fluxes by adding D7-branes to this type IIB theory. We find spontaneous supersymmetry breaking without generating a bulk…
A generalized theory of the self-limiting assembly of twisted bundles of filaments and columns is presented. Bundles and fibers form in a broad variety of supramolecular systems, from biological to synthetic materials. A widely-invoked…
We show that the pure gauge anomalies of 6d $\mathcal N=(1,0)$ theories compactified on a circle are captured by field-dependent Chern-Simons terms appearing at one-loop in the 5d effective theories. These terms vanish if and only if…
We study the boundary states of D-branes wrapped around supersymmetric cycles in a general Calabi-Yau manifold. In particular, we show how the geometric data on the cycles are encoded in the boundary states. As an application, we analyze…
Anomalies are a very powerful tool in constraining theories beyond the standard model. We give a pedagogical overview of some topics illustrating the important role played by spacetime anomalies in string theory. After discussing the…
We consider a $\sigma$-model formulation of open string theory in the presence of D-branes. We perform two-loop computations and discuss gravitational corrections to Born-Infeld action when branes are non-trivially embedded in a curved…
In generalized complex geometry, D-branes can be seen as maximally isotropic spaces and are thus in one-to-one correspondence with pure spinors. When considered on the sum of the tangent and cotangent bundles to the ambient space, all the…
We study the issue of gauge invariance in five-dimensional theories compactified on an orbifold $S^1/(\mathbb{Z}_2\times \mathbb{Z}^\prime_2)$ in the presence of an external U(1) gauge field. From the four-dimensional point We study the…
As is well known, classical General Relativity does not constrain the topology of the spatial sections of our Universe. However, the Brane-World approach to cosmology might be expected to do so, since in general any modification of the…
We study anomalies of six-dimensional gauge theories compactified on orbifolds. In addition to the known bulk anomalies, brane anomalies appear on orbifold fixpoints in the case of chiral boundary conditions. At a fixpoint, where the bulk…
In the paper arXiv:0810.4291 we have shown, in the context of type II superstring theory, the classification of the allowed B-field and A-field configurations in the presence of anomaly-free D-branes, the mathematical framework being…
We consider chains of generalized submanifolds, as defined by Gualtieri in the context of generalized complex geometry, and define a boundary operator that acts on them. This allows us to define generalized cycles and the corresponding…
The mean curvature flow describes the parabolic deformation of embedded branes in Riemannian geometry driven by their extrinsic mean curvature vector, which is typically associated to surface tension forces. It is the gradient flow of the…