arXiv research

Study gauged supergravity, M5-branes, and class R theories, constraining supergravity coefficients and calculating partition functions.

We present a ten-dimensional theory, named β-supergravity, that contains non-geometric fluxes and could uplift some four-dimensional gauged supergravities. Building on earlier work, we study here its NSNS sector, where Q- and R-fluxes are precisely identified. Interestingly, the Q-flux is captured in an analogue of the…

The paper integrates supergravity with geometric and symplectic structures.

We give holomorphic Chern-Simons-like action functionals on supertwistor space for self-dual supergravity theories in four dimensions, dealing with N=0,...,8 supersymmetries, the cases where different parts of the R-symmetry are gauged, and with or without a cosmological constant. The gauge group is formally the group …

These notes are based on lectures given at the Clay School on Geometry and String Theory, Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge, 25 March - 19 April 2002. They attempt to provide an elementary and somewhat self contained discussion of the construction of supergravity solutions describing branes wrapping calibrated cycles, …

This work interprets supergravity as a super Cartan geometry linking it to Yang-Mills theory.

New solutions of gravity from branes wrapped on orbifolds.

We define a holographic dual to the Donaldson-Witten topological twist of $\mathcal{N}=2$ gauge theories on a Riemannian four-manifold. This is described by a class of asymptotically locally hyperbolic solutions to $\mathcal{N}=4$ gauged supergravity in five dimensions, with the four-manifold as conformal boundary. Und…

Geometric formulation of 4D supergravity for mathematicians.

The paper explores how fields in higher dimensions are quantized.

Derives log-corrections in AdS4/CFT3 using supergravity localization.

Higher gauge theory via differential nonabelian cohomology

This thesis is devoted to various questions connected with duality. It is composed of two parts. The first part discusses some aspects of timelike T-duality. We explore the possibility of compactification of supergravity theories with various signatures (low energy limit of $M$-theories which are dual under timelike T-…

A description of how a theory of gravity can be considered as a gauge theory (in the sense of Trautman) of the Poincare' group is given. As a result, it is shown that a gauge theory of this kind is consistent with the Equivalence Principle only if the Lagrangian and the constraints are preserved not only by the gauge t…

We consider compactification of type IIA supergravity on nearly Kaehler manifolds. These represent a simple class of SU(3) structure manifolds which includes S^6 and CP^3. We exhibit for the first time an explicit reduction ansatz in this context, obtaining an N=2 gauged supergravity in 4d with a single vector and hype…

New Euclidean supersymmetric solutions found for a specific metric.

We construct rigid supersymmetric gauge theories on Riemannian five-manifolds. We follow a holographic approach, realizing the manifold as the conformal boundary of a six-dimensional bulk supergravity solution. This leads to a systematic classification of five-dimensional supersymmetric backgrounds with gravity duals. …

The Bianchi identities for bosonic fluxes in supergravity can receive higher derivative quantum and string corrections, the most well known being that of Heterotic theory $d H = \tfrac{1}{4}α'(\text{tr } F^2 - \text{tr } R^2)$. Less studied are the modifications at order $R^4$ that may arise, for example, in the Bianch…

Holomorphic supergravity theory simplifies anomaly cancellation in heterotic moduli.

We find a Sasaki-Einstein metric from a CFT state in AdS5.

We study gravity duals to a broad class of N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories defined on a general class of three-manifold geometries. The gravity backgrounds are based on Euclidean self-dual solutions to four-dimensional gauged supergravity. As well as constructing new examples, we prove in general that for solutions d…

We first review the notion of a $G_2$-manifold, defined in terms of a principal $G_2$ ("gauge") bundle over a $7$-dimensional manifold, before discussing their relation to supergravity. In a second thread, we focus on associative submanifolds and present their deformation theory. In particular, we elaborate on a deform…

We consider dimensional reduction of gauge theories with arbitrary gauge group in a formalism based on equivariant principal bundles. For the classical gauge groups we clarify the relations between equivariant principal bundles and quiver bundles, and show that the reduced quiver gauge theories are all generically buil…

We study how to generate new Lie algebras $\mathcal{G}(N_0,..., N_p,...,N_n)$ from a given one $\mathcal{G}$. The (order by order) method consists in expanding its Maurer-Cartan one-forms in powers of a real parameter $λ$ which rescales the coordinates of the Lie (super)group $G$, $g^{i_p} \to λ^p g^{i_p}$, in a way su…

We reexamine the notions of generalized Ricci tensor and scalar curvature on a general Courant algebroid, reformulate them using objects natural w.r.t. pull-backs and reductions, and obtain them from the variation of a natural action functional. This allows us to prove, in a very general setup, the compatibility of the…

We show that the horizon geometry for supersymmetric black hole solutions of minimal five-dimensional gauged supergravity is that of a particular Einstein-Cartan-Weyl (ECW) structure in three dimensions, involving the trace and traceless part of both torsion and nonmetricity, and obeying some precise constraints. In th…

We develop a systematic approach to G_2 holonomy manifolds with an SU(2)xSU(2) isometry using maximal eight-dimensional gauged supergravity to describe D6-branes wrapped on deformed three-spheres. A quite general metric ansatz that generalizes the celebrated Bryant-Salamon metric involves nine functions. We show that o…

We discuss a deformation of Sasakian structure in the presence of totally skew-symmetric torsion by introducing odd dimensional manifolds whose metric cones are Kähler with torsion. It is shown that such a geometry inherits similar properties to those of Sasakian geometry. As an example of them, we present an explicit …

Develops complex spinorial forms for all dimensions and signatures, proving Brinkmann waves in supergravity.

In 1981, covariantly constant spinors were introduced into Kaluza-Klein theory as a way of counting the number of supersymmetries surviving compactification. These are related to the holonomy group of the compactifying manifold. The first non-trivial example was provided in 1982 by D=11 supergravity on the squashed S7,…

Analyzes quantization of flux observables in gauge theories.

Cohomological methods are applied for the special set of solutions corresponding to rotating branes in arbitrary dimensions, AdS black holes (which can be embedded in ten or eleven dimensions), and gauge supergravities. A new class of solutions is proposed, the Hilbert modular varieties, which consist of the $2n$-fold …

Study torsion parallel spinors on Lorentzian 4-manifolds and their evolution flows.

In this easy introduction to higher gauge theory, we describe parallel transport for particles and strings in terms of 2-connections on 2-bundles. Just as ordinary gauge theory involves a gauge group, this generalization involves a gauge '2-group'. We focus on 6 examples. First, every abelian Lie group gives a Lie 2-gr…

We study some aspects of spherical symmetric dyonic non-supersymmetric black holes in $4d \; N=1$ supergravity coupled to chiral and vector multiplets on Kähler-Ricci solitons. Then, we have a family of dyonic non-supersymmetric black holes deformed with respect to the flow parameter related to the Kähler-Ricci soliton…

The paper studies higher geometric structures and connections on manifolds, constructing moduli stacks and proving equivalence criteria.

Constructs BPS complexes and Chern--Simons theories from G-structures.

We study heterotic supergravity at $\mathcal{O}(α')$, first described in detail in 1989 by Bergshoeff and de Roo. In particular, we discuss an ambiguity of a connection choice on the tangent bundle. It is well known that at $\mathcal{O}(α')$ the Hull connection gives a consistent supergravity theory with supersymmetry …

We give a global formulation of the coupling of four-dimensional scalar sigma models to Abelian gauge fields for the generalized situation when the "duality structure" of the Abelian gauge theory is described by a flat symplectic vector bundle $(\mathcal{S},D,ω)$ defined over the scalar manifold $\mathcal{M}$. The cons…

Free differential algebras (FDA's) provide an algebraic setting for field theories with antisymmetric tensors. The "presentation" of FDA's generalizes the Cartan-Maurer equations of ordinary Lie algebras, by incorporating p-form potentials. An extended Lie derivative along antisymmetric tensor fields can be defined, an…

We study a class of supersymmetric spinning particle models derived from the radial quantization of stationary, spherically symmetric black holes of four dimensional N= 2 supergravities. By virtue of the c-map, these spinning particles move in quaternionic Kaehler manifolds. Their spinning degrees of freedom describe m…

This thesis proposes a global geometric formulation of Extended Field Theories.

The higher gauge field in 11-dimensional supergravity -- the C-field -- is constrained by quantum effects to be a cocycle in some twisted version of differential cohomology. We argue that it should indeed be a cocycle in a certain twisted nonabelian differential cohomology. We give a simple and natural characterization…

We show that generalised geometry gives a unified description of bosonic eleven-dimensional supergravity restricted to a $d$-dimensional manifold for all $d\leq7$. The theory is based on an extended tangent space which admits a natural $E_{d(d)} \times \mathbb{R}^+$ action. The bosonic degrees of freedom are unified as…

The presentation of supergravity theories of our previous paper "Super-Poincare' algebras, space-times and supergravities (I)" is re-formulated in the language of Berezin-Leites-Kostant theory of supermanifolds. It is also shown that the equations of Cremmer, Julia and Scherk's theory of 11D-supergravity are equivalent…

A family of new twistor string theories is constructed and shown to be free from world-sheet anomalies. The spectra in space-time are calculated and shown to give Einstein supergravities with second order field equations instead of the higher derivative conformal supergravities that arose from earlier twistor strings. …

A new formulation of theories of supergravity as theories satisfying a generalized Principle of General Covariance is given. It is a generalization of the superspace formulation of simple 4D-supergravity of Wess and Zumino and it is designed to obtain geometric descriptions for the supergravities that correspond to the…

Heterotic vacua of string theory are realised, at large radius, by a compact threefold with vanishing first Chern class together with a choice of stable holomorphic vector bundle. These form a wide class of potentially realistic four-dimensional vacua of string theory. Despite all their phenomenological promise, there …