Related papers: Stringy Geometry and Topology of Orbifolds
We give an overview of the status of string cosmology. We explain the motivation for the subject, outline the main problems, and assess some of the proposed solutions. Our focus is on those aspects of cosmology that benefit from the…
Orientifolds of the type IIB superstring that descend from F theory and M theory orbifolds are studied perturbatively. One finds strong evidence that a previously ignored twisted open string is required in these models. An attempt is made…
This thesis is concerned with the geometry of toroidal orbifolds and their applications in string theory. By resolving the orbifold singularities via blow-ups, one arrives at a smooth Calabi-Yau manifold. The systematic method to do so is…
In these lectures, we review the physics of time-dependent orbifolds of string theory, with particular attention to orbifolds of three-dimensional Minkowski space. We discuss the propagation of free particles in the orbifold geometries,…
This is a non-technical survey of a recent theory of valuations on manifolds constructed in math.MG/0503397, math.MG/0503399, math.MG/0509512, math.MG/0511171 and actually a guide to this series of articles. We review also some recent…
The purpose of this note is to provide a short invitation to the universal algebraic approach to topological string theory. In the first section we make an attempt to explain the origin of this approach and how it fits into the bigger…
We construct new topological theories related to sigma models whose target space is a seven dimensional manifold of G_2 holonomy. We define a new type of topological twist and identify the BRST operator and the physical states. Unlike the…
We introduce continuous Wilson lines to reduce the rank of the gauge group in orbifold constructions. In situations where the orbifold twist can be realised as a rotation in the root lattice of a grand unified group we derive an appealing…
Recent work has provided a direct string calculation of the internal coordinate dependence of gauge field tadpoles on the orbifold C^3/Z_3. We investigate the structure of these profiles in momentum and coordinate space representations…
We review recent work which has significantly sharpened our geometric understanding and interpretation of the moduli space of certain $N$=2 superconformal field theories. This has resolved some important issues in mirror symmetry and has…
I present a new class of topological string theories, and discuss them in two dimensions as candidates for the string description of large-$N$ QCD. The starting point is a new class of topological sigma models, whose path integral is…
Classically, a spin structure on the loop space of a manifold is a lift of the structure group of the looped frame bundle from the loop group to its universal central extension. Heuristically, the loop space of a manifold is spin if and…
In this paper, we give a survey of a geometrical theory of Jacobi forms of higher degree. And we present some geometric results and discuss some geometric problems to be investigated in the future.
In this dissertation, we study various aspects of type IIB string theory compactified on freely acting orbifolds. We focus particularly on asymmetric orbifolds, which are examples of non-geometric string compactifications and constitute an…
A mostly expository account of old questions about the relationship between polyhedra and topological manifolds. Topics are old topological results, new gauge theory results (with speculations about next directions), and history of the…
String theory and supersymmetry are theoretical ideas that go beyond the standard model of particle physics and show promise for unifying all forces. After a brief introduction to supersymmetry, we discuss the prospects for its experimental…
We study a topological obstruction of a very stringy nature concerned with deforming the target space of an $N=2$ non-linear \sm. This target space has a singularity which may be smoothed away according to the conventional rules of geometry…
String theory is the leading contemporary framework to explore the synthesis of quantum mechanics with gravity. String phenomenology aims to study string theory while maintaining contact with observational data. The fermionic $Z_2\times…
We give a new proof of the string topology structure of a compact oriented surface of genus g greater than or equal to 2, using elementary algebraic topology. This reproves the result of Vaintrob.
Let M be a closed, oriented, n-dimensional manifold. In this paper we give a Morse theoretic description of the string topology operations introduced by Chas and Sullivan, and extended by the first author, Jones, Godin, and others. We do…