Related papers: U-duality as General Coordinate Transformations, a…
Using the conformal compensator superfields of N=2 D=4 supergravity, the Type IIB S-duality transformations are expressed as a linear rotation which mixes the compensator and matter superfields. The classical superspace action for D=4…
We reformulate eleven-dimensional supergravity, including fermions, in terms of generalised geometry, for spacetimes that are warped products of Minkowski space with a $d$-dimensional manifold $M$ with $d\leq7$. The reformation has a…
In the framework of heterotic compactifications, we consider the one-loop corrections to the gauge couplings, which were shown to be free of any infra-red ambiguity. For a class of N=2 models, namely those that are obtained by toroidal…
Four-graviton, eight-derivative couplings in the low energy effective action of toroidal type II string compactifications are tightly constrained by U-duality invariance and by supersymmetry. In this note, we revisit earlier proposals for…
U-duality imposes strong constraints on the structure of divergences in supergravity. But Gaillard-Zumino Sp$(2n_v, \mathbb{R})$ duality in D=4 has more symmetries than U-duality. For example, in $N = 8$ the dimension of Sp(56) is 1596,…
We discuss some consequences of the fact that symmetry groups appearing in compactified (super-)gravity may be non-simply connected. The possibility to add fermions to a theory results in a simple criterion to decide whether a 3-dimensional…
We describe how generalized complex geometry, which interpolates between complex and symplectic geometry, is compatible with T-duality, a relation between quantum field theories discovered by physicists. T-duality relates topologically…
In this thesis we study compactifications of type II string theories and M-theory to four dimensions. We construct the four-dimensional N=2 supergravities that arise from compactifications of type IIA string theory and M-theory on manifolds…
We reconsider the study of the geometric transitions and brane/flux dualities in various dimensions. We first give toric interpretations of the topology changing transitions in the Calabi-Yau conifold and the $Spin(7)$ manifold. The latter,…
We study the effect of T-duality on supersymmetry in the context of type II supergravity. For both U(1) Abelian and SU(2) non-Abelian T-duality, we demonstrate that the supersymmetry variations after T-duality are related to the variations…
Global aspects of Scherk-Schwarz dimensional reduction are discussed and it is shown that it can usually be viewed as arising from a compactification on the compact space obtained by identifying a (possibly non-compact) group manifold G…
The dimensional reduction of heterotic supergravity with gauge fields truncated to the Cartan subalgebra exhibits a continuous O(d,d+16;R) global symmetry, related to the O(d,d+16;Z) T-duality of heterotic strings on a d-torus. The…
We consider a class of cosmological solutions of d=4, N=2 supergravity theories coupled to vector multiplets. The solutions result from performing a compactification to three dimensions, where the theory reduces to a symmetric space sigma…
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 attempt to find a rigorous formulation for the massive type IIA orientifold compactifications of string theory introduced in hep-th/0505160. An approximate double T-duality converts this background into IIA string theory on a twisted…
The aim of this Thesis is twofold. On the one hand, we find the necessary and sufficient conditions for a maximally supersymmetric supergravity theory in 3D to be a solution of 11D supergravity (but the result is general and also holds for…
We consider $d=3$, $\mathcal{N}=2$ gauge theories arising on membranes sitting at the apex of an arbitrary toric Calabi-Yau 4-fold cone singularity that are then further compactified on a Riemann surface, $\Sigma_g$, with a topological…
I study generalisations of U-duality transformations which do not rely on the existence of isometries. I start by providing more details of a recently proposed generalised U-duality map between solutions of type IIA supergravity of the form…
We discuss the different discrete duality symmetries in six dimensions that act within and between (i) the 10-dimensional heterotic string compactified on $T^4$, (ii) the 10-dimensional Type IIA string compactified on $K3$ and (iii) the…
The large $N$ reductions in gauge theories are identified with dimensional reductions with homogeneous distribution of the eigenvalues of the gauge field, and it is used to identify the corresponding closed string descriptions in the…