Related papers: Conformality from Field-String Duality on Abelian …
We study conformal field theory on two-dimensional orbifolds and show this to be an effective way to analyze physical effects of geometric singularities with angular deficits. They are closely related to boundaries and cross caps.…
We discuss non-compact WZW sigma models, especially the ones with symmetric space $H^{\bf C}/H$ as the target, for $H$ a compact Lie group. They offer examples of non-rational conformal field theories. We remind their relation to the…
Among $T^7/\Gamma$ orbifold compactifications of $M$-theory, we examine models containing the particle physics Standard Model in four-dimensional spacetimes, which appear as fixed subspaces of the ten-dimensional spacetimes at each end of…
The use of discrete symmetries, especially abelian ones, in physics beyond the standard model of particle physics is discussed. A method is developed how a general, abelian, discrete symmetry can be obtained via spontaneous symmetry…
The modular symmetries of string loop threshold corrections for gauge coupling constants are studied in the presence of discrete Wilson lines for all examples of abelian orbifolds, where the point group is realised by the action of Coxeter…
Higher dimensional grand unified theories, with gauge symmetry breaking by orbifold compactification, possess SU(5) breaking at fixed points, and do not automatically lead to tree-level gauge coupling unification. A new framework is…
We investigate non-abelian gaugings of WZNW models. When the gauged group is semisimple we are able to present exact formulae for the dual conformal field theory, for all values of the level $k$. The results are then applied to non-abelian…
We investigate in the simplest compact D=4 N=1 Type IIB orientifold models the sigma-model symmetry suggested by the proposed duality of these models to heterotic orbifold vacua. This symmetry is known to be present at the classical level,…
We consider a conformal model involving two real scalar fields in which the conformal symmetry is broken by a soft mechanism and is not anomalous. One of these scalar fields is representative of the standard model Higgs. The model predicts…
Following an old result of Marcus and Schwarz we argue that in the heterotic string theory compactified on a seven dimensional torus, the target space duality group O(7,23;Z) and the strong-weak coupling duality transformations combine into…
Unified theories based on an extended left-right symmetric group, $SU(4) \times SU(2)^4$, are constructed in five dimensions. The compactification scale is assumed to be only a loop factor above the weak scale, so that the weak mixing angle…
In the space of couplings of the 4D N=1 gauge theory associated to D3 branes probing Calabi-Yau singularities, there is a manifold over which superconformal invariance is preserved. The AdS/CFT correspondence is valid precisely for this…
Localization methods have produced explicit expressions for the sphere partition functions of (2,2) superconformal field theories. The mirror symmetry conjecture predicts an IR duality between pairs of Abelian gauged linear sigma models, a…
We investigate second order conformal perturbation theory for $\mathbb{Z}_2$ orbifolds of conformal field theories in two dimensions. To evaluate the necessary twisted sector correlation functions and their integrals, we map them from the…
We introduce a novel parafermionic theory for which the conformal dimension of the basic parafermion is 3(1-1/k)/2, with k even. The structure constants and the central charges are obtained from mode-type associativity calculations. The…
M5 branes probing D-type singularities give rise to 6d (1,0) SCFTs with $SO \times SO$ flavor symmetry known as D-type conformal matter theories. Gauging the diagonal $SO$-flavor symmetry leads to a little string theory with an intrinsic…
In these lectures, we study and compare two different formulations of $SU(2)$, level $k=1$, Wess-Zumino-Witten conformal field theory. The first, conventional, formulation employs the affine symmetry of the model; in this approach…
The anomaly of a discrete symmetry is defined as the Jacobian of the path-integral measure. Assuming that the anomaly at low energies is cancelled by the Green-Schwarz (GS) mechanism at a fundamental scale, we investigate possible Kac-Moody…
In light of the AdS/CFT correspondence, it is natural to try to define a conformal field theory in a large N, strong coupling limit via a supergravity compactification on the product of an Einstein manifold and anti-de Sitter space. We…
We consider a conformal system of a string and a particle defined in D=10+2 space-time dimensions. The extra time-like dimension is a gauge artifact and can be eliminated by choosing a gauge in which the SO(10,1) Lorentz symmetry is…