Related papers: Recent Developments in String Theory: From Perturb…
In recent years there has been some progress in understanding how one might model the interactions of branes in M-theory despite not having a fundamental perturbative description. The goal of this review is to describe different approaches…
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…
Two dimensional string theory is known to have an infinite dimensional symmetry, both in the continuum formalism as well as in the matrix model formalism. We develop a systematic procedure for computing the conserved charges associated with…
In these notes, based on a talk given at the Rencontres de Moriond, I give a simple introduction to the tremendous progress that has been made during the last few years towards the understanding of strong-coupling phenomena in quantum gauge…
Polchinski and Pouliot have shown that M-momentum transfer between membranes in supergravity can be understood as a non-perturbative instanton effect in gauge theory. Here we consider a dual process: electric flux transmission between…
D-branes are string theory solitons defined by boundary conditions on open strings that end on them. They play an important role in the non-perturbative dynamics of string theory and have found a wide range of applications. These lectures…
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…
Recent investigations involving the decay of unstable D-branes in string theory suggest that the tree level open string theory which describes the dynamics of the D-brane already knows about the closed string states produced in the decay of…
This is the writeup of lectures delivered in Asian Pacific introductory school on superstring and the related topics in Beijing (2006) and the expanded version of these lectures in the 3rd summer school on strings, fields and holography in…
This is a short summary of my lectures given at the Fourth Mexican School on Gravitation and Mathematical Physics. These lectures gave a brief introduction to black holes in string theory, in which I primarily focussed on describing some of…
String theories naturally exhibit dualities that lead to hidden symmetries in the low-energy effective description, which have been used to great effect to generate supergravity solutions. We review recent progress in using hidden…
String and membrane dynamics may be unified into a theory of 2+2 dimensional self-dual world-volumes living in a 10+2 dimensional target space. Some of the vacua of this M-theory are described by the N=(2,1) heterotic string, whose target…
We examine the equations of motion of double field theory and the duality manifest form of M-theory. We show the solutions of the equations of motion corresponding to null pp-waves correspond to strings or membranes from the usual spacetime…
We present general formulae for the TsT transformation (T-duality, shift, T-duality) of type II string backgrounds and open string boundary conditions. The TsT transformation provides a systematic procedure to find string theory duals of…
We present an overview of the intimate relationship between string and D-brane dynamics, and the dynamics of gauge and gravitational fields in three spacetime dimensions. The successes, prospects and open problems in describing both…
Engineering quantum field theories in String Theory in terms of branes is a powerful approach for understanding their dynamics. We review recent progress in the realization of $2d$ $\mathcal{N}=(0,2)$ gauge theories in terms of branes. We…
A dual pair of supersymmetric string theories that involves an asymmetric orbifold and an orientifold of Type II is considered. The D-branes of the orbifold theory (that were recently determined by Gutperle) are all non-BPS and do not carry…
An overview is given of the way in which the unification program of particle physics has evolved into the proposal of superstring theory as a prime candidate for unifying quantum gravity with the other forces and particles of nature. A key…
This is a write-up of introductory lectures on black holes in string theory given at TASI-99. Topics discussed include: Black holes, thermodynamics and the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy, the information problem; supergravity actions, conserved…
I review certain aspects of Hanany-Witten setups and other approaches used to embed (and solve) gauge theories in string theory. Applications covered include dualities in 4 and 3 dimensions, fixed points in 6 dimensions, phase transitions…