Related papers: Puzzles on the Duality between Heterotic and Type …
We study N=2 four-dimensional flux vacua describing intrinsic non-perturbative systems of 3 and 7 branes in type IIB string theory. The solutions are described as compactifications of a G(ravity) theory on a Calabi Yau threefold which…
String-string duality dictates that type IIA strings compactified on a K3 surface acquire non-abelian gauge groups for certain values of the K3 moduli. We argue that, contrary to expectation, the theories for which such enhanced gauge…
We provide the first explicit example of Type IIB string theory compactification on a globally defined Calabi-Yau threefold with torsion which results in a four-dimensional effective theory with a non-Abelian discrete gauge symmetry. Our…
Given X a K3 surface, a mirror dual to X can be identified with a component of the moduli space of semistable sheaves on X. We consider fibrations by K3 surfaces over a one dimensional base that are Calabi-Yau and we obtain a dual fibration…
Target space duality (T duality), which interchanges Kaluza--Klein and winding-mode excitations of the compactified heterotic string, is realized as a symmetry of a world-sheet action. Axion-dilaton duality (S duality), a conjectured…
We review the structure $D=6, N=1$ string vacua with emphasis on the different connections due to T-dualities and S-dualities. The topics discussed include: Anomaly cancellation; K3 and orbifold $D=6, N=1$ heterotic compactifications;…
In this note we propose a generalization of heterotic/F-theory duality. We introduce a set of non-compact building blocks which we glue together to reach compact examples of generalized duality pairs. The F-theory building blocks consist of…
We review here some aspects of our recent works about the geometric engineering of heterotic little string theories using F-theory. Building on the seminal work by Aspinwall and Morrison as well as Intrilligator and Blum, we solve some…
The heterotic string occurs as a soliton of the type I superstring in ten dimensions, supporting the conjecture that these two theories are equivalent. The conjecture that the type IIB string is self-dual, with the strong coupling dynamics…
Certain limits of the duality between M-theory on ${T^5/Z_2}$ and IIB on K3 are analyzed in Matrix theory. The correspondence between M-theory five-branes and ALE backgrounds is realized as three dimensional mirror symmetry. Non-critical…
We study geometric transitions for topological strings on compact Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in toric varieties. Large N duality predicts an equivalence between topological open and closed string theories connected by an extremal transition.…
We undertake a systematic scan of vector bundles over spaces from the largest database of known Calabi-Yau three-folds, in the context of heterotic string compactification. Specifically, we construct positive rank five monad bundles over…
We briefly review the recent programme to construct, systematically and algorithmically, large classes of heterotic vacua, as well as the search for the MSSM therein. Specifically, we outline the monad construction of vector bundles over…
We study the geometry of a birational map between an intersection of a web of quadrics in seven-dimensional complex projective space that contains a plane and the double octic branched along the discriminant of the web.
In this lecture we summarize some recent work on the understanding of instanton effects in string theories with 16 supersymmetries. In particular, we consider F^4 couplings using the duality between the heterotic string on T^4 and type IIA…
During the last years we have generated a large number of data related to Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in toric varieties which can be described by reflexive polyhedra. We classified all reflexive polyhedra in three dimensions leading to K3…
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 hypermultiplet moduli space M_H in type II string theories compactified on a Calabi-Yau threefold X is largely constrained by supersymmetry (which demands quaternion-K\"ahlerity), S-duality (which requires an isometric action of SL(2,…
We discuss perturbative four-dimensional compactifications of both the SO(32) heterotic and the Type I string on smooth Calabi-Yau manifolds endowed with general non-abelian and abelian bundles. We analyse the generalized Green-Schwarz…
We study the behavior of the Kodaira dimension of algebraic fiber spaces over threefolds. We prove some cases of the Iitaka Conjecture $C_{n,3}$, including certain situations where the base variety is a Calabi--Yau threefold.