Related papers: Anatomy of a Duality
We study large N dualities for a general class of N=1 theories realized on type IIB D5 branes wrapping 2-cycles of local Calabi-Yau threefolds or as effective field theories on D4 branes in type IIA brane configurations. We completely solve…
Certain six-dimensional (1,0) supersymmetric little string theories, when compactified on $T^3$, have moduli spaces of vacua given by smooth K3 surfaces. Using ideas of Gaiotto-Moore-Neitzke, we show that this provides a systematic…
We calculate the most general causal N=1 three-dimensional, gauge invariant action coupled to matter in superspace and derive its component form using Ectoplasmic integration theory. One example of such an action can be obtained by…
We show that the duality between F-theory and the CHL string in seven dimensions defines algebraic correspondences between K3 surfaces polarized by the rank-ten lattices $H \oplus N$ and $H\oplus E_8(-2)$. In the special case when the…
We re-examine the question of heterotic - heterotic string duality in six dimensions and argue that the $E_8\times E_8$ heterotic string, compactified on $K3$ with equal instanton numbers in the two $E_8$'s, has a self-duality that inverts…
We discuss the duality between two type I compactifications to four dimensions and an heterotic construction with spontaneous breaking of the N=4 supersymmetry to N=2. This duality allows us to gain insight into the non-perturbative…
We show that a set of parallel 3-brane probes near a conifold singularity can be mapped onto a configuration of intersecting branes in type IIA string theory. The field theory on the probes can be explicitly derived from this formulation.…
It has been proposed that cobordism and K-theory groups, which can be mathematically related in certain cases, are physically associated to generalised higher-form symmetries. As a consequence, they should be broken or gauged in any…
We propose an M-theory lift picture of the exchange among type IIA orientifold two-planes. This consists in wrapping a M5-brane on a three-cycle in the transverse space of the M-theory orientifold plane OM2. A flux quantization condition…
We construct compact examples of D-manifolds for type IIB strings. The construction has a natural interpretation in terms of compactification of a 12 dimensional `F-theory'. We provide evidence for a more natural reformulation of type IIB…
We consider an eleven dimensional supergravity compactified on $K3\times T^2$ and show that the resulting five dimensional theory has identical massless states as that of heterotic string compactified on a specific five torus $T^5$. The…
We construct orientifolds of type IIA string theory. The theory is compactified on a T^6/Z_N times Z_M orbifold. In addition worldsheet parity in combination with a reflection of three compact directions is modded out. Tadpole cancellation…
We study a new class of matrix models, the simplest of which is based on an Sp(2) symmetry and has a compactification which is equivalent to Chern-Simons theory on the three-torus. By replacing Sp(2) with the super-algebra Osp(1|32), which…
We study the M(atrix) theory which describes the $E_8 \times E_8$ heterotic string compactified on $S^1$, or equivalently M-theory compactified on an orbifold $(S^1/\integer_2) \times S^1$, in the presence of a Wilson line. We formulate the…
We study the compactification of the $(2,0)$ and type-II little-string theories on $S^1$, $T^2$ and $T^3$ with an R-symmetry twist that preserves half the supersymmetry. We argue that it produces the same moduli spaces of vacua as…
The three-dimensional topologies of the membrane of M-theory can be constructed by performing Dehn surgery along knot lines. We investigate membranes wrapped around a circle and the correponding subset of topologies (Seifert manifolds). The…
1. Preliminaries. 2. Heterotic string and motivations for large volume compactifications; 2.1 Gauge coupling unification; 2.2 Supersymmetry breaking by compactification. 3. M-theory on S^1/Z_2 \times Calabi-Yau. 4. Type I/I' string theory…
We show how supersymmetry conditions for flux compactifications of supergravity and string theory can be described in terms of a flat subalgebra of the Kahler-Atiyah algebra of the compactification space, a description which has…
N=2 heterotic strings may provide a window into the physics of M-theory radically different than that found via the other supersymmetric string theories. In addition to their supersymmetric structure, these strings carry a four-dimensional…
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…