Related papers: Linear Dilatons, NS5-branes and Holography
Five dimensional dilaton models are considered as possible holographic duals of the pure gauge QCD vacuum. In the framework of these models, the QCD trace anomaly equation is considered. Each quantity appearing in that equation is computed…
The past year has seen enormous progress in string theory. It has become clear that all of the different string theories are different limits of a single theory. Moreover, in certain limits, one obtains a new, eleven-dimensional structure…
We study a set of examples of holographic duals to theories with spontaneous breaking of conformal invariance in different dimensions. The geometries are domain walls interpolating between two AdS spaces, with a non-trivial background…
We study NSR strings in the Nappi-Witten background, which is the Penrose limit of a certain NS5-brane supergravity solution. We solve the theory in the light-cone gauge, obtaining the spectrum, which is space-time supersymmetric. In light…
The paper discusses the connection between S-duality and string-theoretic picture-changing formalism. The singular limit of the picture-changing transformation at zero momentum leads to the presence of the topological 5-form charge in the…
Non-relativistic string theories promise to provide simpler theories of quantum gravity as well as tractable limits of the AdS/CFT correspondence. However, several apparently distinct non-relativistic string theories have been constructed.…
String theory in two-dimensional spacetime illuminates two main threads of recent development in string theory: (1) Open/closed string duality, and (2) Tachyon condensation. In two dimensions, many aspects of these phenomena can be explored…
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…
By studying 2d string compactifications with half-maximal supersymmetry in a variety of duality frames, we find a natural physical setting for understanding Umbral moonshine. Near points in moduli space with enhanced gauge symmetry, we find…
We study M/D-branes in a null-brane background. By taking a near horizon limit, one is left with cosmological models in the corresponding Poincar\'e patches. To deal with their usual horizons, we either extend these models to global AdS or…
The hypothesis of gauge/gravity correspondence (or holographic duality) from string theory has led to unexpected and challenging ways for description of strongly coupled systems. Such descriptions are given in terms of weakly-coupled…
We discuss a duality of (0,2) heterotic string vacua which implies that certain pairs of (0,2) Calabi-Yau compactifications on topologically distinct target manifolds yield identical string theories. Some complex structure moduli in one…
We provide several consistency checks of confining dynamics in a recently conjectured holographic dual of a four-dimensional ${\cal N}=1$ supersymmetric gauge theory that flows from a conformal manifold in the UV to a finite set of…
We analyze the conjectured duality between a class of double-scaling limits of a one-matrix model and the topological twist of non-critical superstring backgrounds that contain the N=2 Kazama-Suzuki SL(2)/U(1) supercoset model. The…
In the fruitful interplay between gauge fields and strings and in many conjectured M-theory dualities, open strings play a prominent role. We review the construction of open-string descendants (un-orientifolds) of closed-string theories…
String theory dynamics on certain fivebrane supertube backgrounds is described by an exactly solvable null-gauged WZW model. We use this description to compute the spectrum of closed string excitations on the three-charge non-supersymmetric…
We carry out a gauge invariant analysis of certain perturbations of $D-2$-branes solutions of low energy string theories. We get generically a system of second order coupled differential equations, and show that only in very particular…
Aspects of string cosmology for critical and non-critical strings are discussed emphasizing the necessity to account for the dilaton dynamics for a proper incorporation of ``large - small" duality. This drastically modifies the intuition…
We consider quantization of open string theories in linear dilaton and constant antisymmetric tensor backgrounds and discuss the noncommutativity of space-time coordinates arising in such theories, including their relationship with…
We consider non-critical heterotic strings compactified on $S^1$. For full rank theories, they are related to odd self-dual lattices and are structurally of the same form as the critical non-supersymmetric theories. For dimensions up to 14…