Related papers: Discrete Torsion, Quotient Stacks, and String Orbi…

In this article, we construct an orbifold quantum cohomology twisted by a flat gerbe. Then we compute these invariants in the case of a smooth manifold and a discrete torsion on a global quotient orbifold.

In this paper we review the topological model for the quaternions based upon the Dirac string trick. We then extend this model, to create a model for the octonions - the non-associative generalization of the quaternions.

This work concludes a series of four papers on the foundational theory of orbifolds and stacks. We apply the abstract theory, developed in its predecessors, to orbifolds derived from manifolds. Specifically, we show how the very concrete…

This thesis presents several new insights on the interface between mathematics and theoretical physics, with a central role for fermions on Riemann surfaces. First of all, the duality between Vafa-Witten theory and WZW models is embedded…

These notes are devoted to the intriguing and still largely unexplored links between String Theory and Higher Spins, the types of excitations that lie behind its most cherished properties. A closer look at higher-spin fields provides some…

Without recourse to the sophisticated machinery of twisted group algebras, projective character tables and explicit values of 2-cocycles, we here present a simple algorithm to study the gauge theory data of D-brane probes on a generic…

In this paper we study the string topology (\'a la Chas-Sullivan) of an orbifold. We define the string homology ring product at the level of the free loop space of the classifying space of an orbifold. We study its properties (introducing…

We investigate the field theory of strings having as a target space an arbitrary discrete one-dimensional manifold. The existence of the continuum limit is guaranteed if the target space is a Dynkin diagram of a simply laced Lie algebra or…

This thesis contains of two parts: The first part is a pedagogical introduction into the field of bosonic SFT. After discussing some general properties we expect, Witten's open SFT and Zwiebach's closed SFT are presented in detail. This…

It is observed that a large class of $(2,2)$ string vacua with $n>5$ superfields can be rewritten as Landau_Ginzburg orbifolds with discrete torsion and $n=5$. The naive geometric interpretation (if one exists) would be that of a complex…

This thesis investigates correspondences between open and closed strings. This is done on the level of coupled open-closed moduli spaces and from a string field theoretic point of view. The construction of boundary string field theory on…

We consider the non-trivial boundary conformal field theory with exactly marginal boundary deformation. In recent years this deformation has been studied in the context of rolling tachyons and S-branes in string theory. Here we study the…

The rotating string model is an effective model of mesons, in which the quark and the antiquark are linked by a straight string. We previously developed a new framework to include the retardation effects in the rotating string model, but…

Graphs on surfaces is an active topic of pure mathematics belonging to graph theory. It has also been applied to physics and relates discrete and continuous mathematics. In this paper we present a formal mathematical description of the…

Modular invariance is a necessary condition for the consistency of any closed string theory. In particular, it imposes stringent constraints on the spectrum of orbifold theories, and in principle determines their spectrum uniquely up to…

The goal of these lectures is to present an informal but precise introduction to a body of concepts and methods of interest in number theory and string theory revolving around modular forms and their generalizations. Modular invariance lies…

Beginning with a review of the arguments leading to the so-called c=1 barrier in the continuum formulation of noncritical string theory, the pathology is then exhibited in a discretized version of the theory, formulated through dynamical…

We establish the general machinery of string topology for differentiable stacks. This machinery allows us to treat on an equal footing free loops in stacks and hidden loops. In particular, we give a good notion of a free loop stack, and of…

In this paper we study string compactifications on Deligne-Mumford stacks. The basic idea is that all such stacks have presentations to which one can associate gauged sigma models, where the group gauged need be neither finite nor…

These lectures are intended as an introduction to some of the basic aspects of string solitons, duality and black holes. We begin with a discussion of the role of classical solutions in duality, then focus on string/string duality and…