Related papers: 4d Conformal Field Theories and Strings on Orbifol…

We construct non-supersymmetric four dimensional gauge theories arising as effective theories of D-branes placed on various singularities in Type 0B string theory. We mostly focus on models which are conformal in the large N limit and…

We study two-dimensional string theory on a time-dependent background, whose worldsheet description consists of Liouville theory at central charge c = 1 and Liouville theory at central charge c = 25, together with the conformal ghosts. We…

We develop techniques to compute higher loop string amplitudes for twisted $N=2$ theories with $\hat c=3$ (i.e. the critical case). An important ingredient is the discovery of an anomaly at every genus in decoupling of BRST trivial states,…

We investigate maximally symmetric backgrounds in nonsupersymmetric string vacua with D-branes and O-planes localized in the compact space. We find a class of solutions with a perturbative string coupling constant in all regions of…

We describe some of the novel 6d quantum field theories which have been discovered in studies of string duality. The role these theories (and their 4d descendants) may play in alleviating the vacuum degeneracy problem in string theory is…

In this article I first give an abbreviated history of string theory and then describe the recently-conjectured field-string duality. This suggests a class of nonsupersymmetric gauge theories which are conformal (CGT) to leading order of…

We study the type IIB superstring in the plane-wave background with Ramond-Ramond flux and formulate it as an exact conformal field theory in operator formalism. One of the characteristic features of the superstring in a consistent…

We construct more dual pairs of type II-heterotic strings in four dimensions with $N=2,1$ spacetime supersymmetry. On the type II side the construction utilizes the various possible choices of K3 automorphisms with fixed points which…

In recent work Kachru, Kumar and Silverstein introduced a special class of non-supersymmetric type II string theories in which the cosmological constant vanishes at the first two orders of perturbation theory. Heuristic arguments suggest…

The well known N=2 string theory describes self-dual gravity, as was shown by Ooguri and Vafa sometime ago. In search of a variant of this theory which would describe self-dual supergravity in 2+2 dimensions, we have constructed two new N=2…

We study the null orbifold singularity in 2+1 d flat space higher spin theory as well as string theory. Using the Chern-Simons formulation of 2+1 d Einstein gravity, we first observe that despite the singular nature of this geometry, the…

String theory is the leading contemporary framework to explore the synthesis of quantum mechanics with gravity. String phenomenology aims to study string theory while maintaining contact with observational data. The fermionic $Z_2\times…

Compactifications of the physical superstring to two dimensions provide a general template for realizing 2D conformal field theories coupled to worldsheet gravity, i.e. non-critical string theories. Motivated by this observation, in this…

We construct a supersymmetric version of the ``critical'' non-relativistic bosonic string theory\cite{Kim:2007hb} with its manifest global symmetry. We introduce the anticommuting $bc$ CFT which is the super partner of the $\beta\gamma$…

The four-dimensional superstring solutions define at low energy effective supergravity theories. A class of them extends successfully the validity of the standard model up to the string scale (${\cal O}(10^{17})~TeV$). We stress the…

We revisit flux compactifications of type IIB string theory on `spaces' dual to rigid Calabi-Yau manifolds. This rather unexplored part of the string landscapes harbors many interesting four-dimensional solutions, namely supersymmetric…

In string theory it is known that abelian isometries in the sigma model lead to target space duality. We generalize this duality to backgrounds with non--abelian isometries. The procedure we follow consists of gauging the isometries of the…

Is perturbative stability intimately tied with the existence of spacetime fermions in string theory in more than two dimensions? Type 0'B string theory in ten-dimensional flat space is a rare example of a non-tachyonic, non-supersymmetric…

In some string theories, e.g. SO(32) heterotic string theory on Calabi-Yau manifolds, a massless field with a tree level potential can acquire a tachyonic mass at the one loop level, forcing us to quantize the theory around a new background…

We obtain the supergravity solution which describes a bound state of D-string/anti-D-string pairs attached to different fixed planes of an orbifold, in type IIB string theory compactified on T^4/Z_2. For parameters at which the conformal…