Related papers: The heterotic prepotential from eleven dimensions
We find a Nekrasov-type expression for the Seiberg-Witten prepotential for the six-dimensional non-critical E_8 string theory toroidally compactified down to four dimensions. The prepotential represents the BPS partition function of the E_8…
Direct evaluation of the Seiberg-Witten prepotential is accomplished following the localization programme suggested some time ago. Our results agree with all low-instanton calculations available in the literature. We present a two-parameter…
The prepotential and spectral curve are described for a smooth interpolation between an enlarged N=4 SUSY and ordinary N=2 SUSY Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions, obtained by compactification from five dimensions with non-trivial…
Dualities of M-theory are used to determine the exact dependence on the coupling constant of the D^6R^4 interaction of the IIA and IIB superstring effective action. Upon lifting to eleven dimensions this determines the coefficient of the…
We construct two distinct yet related M-theory models that provide suitable frameworks for the study of knot invariants. We then focus on the four-dimensional gauge theory that follows from appropriately compactifying one of these M-theory…
We study gauge theories which are associated with classical vacua of perturbative Type II string theory that allows for a conformal field theory description. We show that even if we compactify seven spatial dimensions (allowing for one…
We study the asymptotic limits of the heterotic string theories compactified on tori. We find a bilinear form uniquely determined by dualities which becomes Lorentzian in the case of one spacetime dimension. For the case of the SO(32)…
We study strong coupling effects in four-dimensional heterotic string models where supersymmetry is spontaneously broken with large internal dimensions, consistently with perturbative unification of gauge couplings. These effects give rise…
In these lectures, we present cosmological vacuum solutions of Horava-Witten theory and discuss their physical properties. We begin by deriving the five-dimensional effective action of strongly coupled heterotic string theory by performing…
We investigate the possibility of lowering the string scale in four dimensional heterotic models possessing a non-perturbative extension of the gauge group. In particular, we consider a class of compactifications in which the perturbative…
In a recent study, we have observed that by imposing a truncated T-duality transformation on the circular reduction of the bosonic couplings in the heterotic theory at four- and six-derivative orders, we can calculate these couplings in a…
We study the duality relationship between M-theory and heterotic string theory at the classical level, emphasising the transformations between the Kaluza-Klein reductions of these two theories on the K3 and T^3 manifolds. Particular…
The prepotential of N=2* supersymmetric theories with unitary gauge groups in an Omega-background satisfies a modular anomaly equation that can be recursively solved order by order in an expansion for small mass. By requiring that S-duality…
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…
We consider special geometry of the vector multiplet moduli space in compactifications of the heterotic string on $K3 \times T^2$ or the type IIA string on $K3$-fibered Calabi-Yau threefolds. In particular, we construct a modified dilaton…
We give a unified analysis of four-dimensional elliptic models with N=2 supersymmetry and a simple gauge group, and their relation to M-theory. Explicit calculations of the Seiberg-Witten curves and the resulting one-instanton prepotential…
In this work we study a modified theory of gravity that contains up to fourth order spatial derivatives as a model for the Horava-Lifshitz gravity. The propagator is evaluated and, as a result, it is obtained one extra pole corresponding to…
Linearized supergravity in arbitrary dimension is reformulated into a first order formalism which treats the graviton and its dual on the same footing at the level of the action. This generalizes previous work by other authors in two…
We discuss aspects of the heterotic string effective field theories in orbifold constructions of the heterotic string. We calculate the moduli dependence of threshold corrections to gauge couplings in (2,2) symmetric orbifold…
The moduli space of the maximally supersymmetric heterotic string in d-dimensional Minkowski space contains various components characterized by the rank of the gauge symmetries of the vacua they parametrize. We develop an approach for…