arXiv research

We study D3-brane theories that are dually described as deformations of two different $\mathcal{N}=2$ superconformal theories with massless monopoles and dyons. These arise at the self-intersection of a seven-brane in F-theory, which cuts out a link on a small three-sphere surrounding the self-intersection. The spectru…

D3-brane solutions derived from Ricci-flat metrics on Kähler-Einstein surfaces.

As the necessary background to construct from the aspect of Grothendieck's Algebraic Geometry dynamical fermionic D3-branes along the line of Ramond-Neveu-Schwarz superstrings in string theory, three pieces of the building blocks are given in the current notes: (1) basic $C^\infty$-algebrogeometric foundations of $d=4$…

Study D3-brane solutions on resolved C^3/Γ singularities, proving metric conjecture.

Study electric-magnetic duality in M-theory compactifications.

We develop an approach to Khovanov homology of knots via gauge theory (previous physics-based approches involved other descriptions of the relevant spaces of BPS states). The starting point is a system of D3-branes ending on an NS5-brane with a nonzero theta-angle. On the one hand, this system can be related to a Chern…

This is the written version of my talk at SUSY '98. It presents a geometric characterisation of the allowed near-horizon geometries of supersymmetric branes. We focus primarily on the M2-brane, but results for other branes (e.g., the D3-brane) are also presented. Some new examples are discussed.

We derive and study supergravity BPS flow equations for M5 or D3 branes wrapping a Riemann surface. They take the form of novel geometric flows intrinsically defined on the surface. Their dual field-theoretic interpretation suggests the existence of solutions interpolating between an arbitrary metric in the UV and the …

Departing from the observation that the Penrose limit of AdS_3 x S^3 is a group contraction in the sense of Inonu and Wigner, we explore the relation between the symmetric D-branes of AdS_3 x S^3 and those of its Penrose limit, a six-dimensional symmetric plane wave analogous to the four-dimensional Nappi--Witten space…

We define a notion of stability for chiral ring of four dimensional N=1 theory by introducing test chiral rings and generalized a maximization. We conjecture that a chiral ring is the chiral ring of a superconformal field theory if and only if it is stable. We then study N=1 field theory derived from D3 branes probing …

We reinterpret the generalised Lie derivative of M-theory $E_6$ generalised geometry as hamiltonian flow on a graded symplectic supermanifold. The hamiltonian acts as the nilpotent derivative of the tensor hierarchy of exceptional field theory. This construction is an M-theory analogue of the Courant algebroid and reve…

In three dimensions, a `master theory' for all Thurston geometries requires imaginary flux. However, these geometries can be obtained from physical three-dimensional theories with various additional scalar fields, which can be interpreted as moduli in various compactifications of a higher-dimensional `master theory'. T…

Extending previous work that involved D3-branes ending on a fivebrane with $θ_{\mathrm{YM}}\not=0$, we consider a similar two-sided problem. This construction, in case the fivebrane is of NS type, is associated to the three-dimensional Chern-Simons theory of a supergroup U$(m|n)$ or OSp$(m|2n)$ rather than an ordinary …

We use the formalism of generalized geometry to study the generic supersymmetric AdS_5 solutions of type IIB supergravity that are dual to N=1 superconformal field theories (SCFTs) in d=4. Such solutions have an associated six-dimensional generalized complex cone geometry that is an extension of Calabi-Yau cone geometr…

WZW models are abstract conformal field theories with an infinite dimensional symmetry which accounts for their integrability, and at the same time they have a sigma model description of closed string propagation on group manifolds which, in turn, endows the models with an intuitive geometric meaning. We exploit this d…