122020140
Duality symmetries in string theory
The search for a unified theory of quantum gravity and gauge interactions leads naturally to string theory. This field of research has received a revival of interest after the discovery of duality symmetries in recent years. We present a self contained account of some non-perturbative aspects of string theory which have been recently understood. The spectrum and interactions of the five consistent superstring theories in ten dimensions are recollected and the fundamental principles underlying this initial stage in the construction of the theory are briefly reviewed. We next discuss some evidences that these apparently different superstrings are just different aspects of one unique theory. The key to this development is given by the non-perturbative duality symmetries which have modified and improved our understanding of string dynamics in many ways. In particular, by relating the fundamental objects of one theory to solitons of another theory, they have unraveled the presence of extended objects in the th...
117028101
Ten Years of AdS/CFT
119116593
Coulomb integrals and conformal blocks in the AdS3-WZNW model
We study spectral flow preserving four-point correlation functions in the AdS3-WZNW model using the Coulomb gas method on the sphere. We present a multiple integral realization of the conformal blocks and explicitly compute amplitudes involving operators with quantized values of the sum of their spins, i.e., requiring an integer number of screening charges of the first kind. The result is given as a sum over the independent configurations of screening contours yielding a monodromy invariant expansion in powers of the worldsheet moduli. We then examine the factorization limit and show that the leading terms in the sum can be identified, in the semiclassical limit, with products of spectral flow conserving three-point functions. These terms can be rewritten as the m-basis version of the integral expression obtained by J. Teschner from a postulate for the operator product expansion of normalizable states in the H3+-WZNW model. Finally, we determine the equivalence between the factorizations of a particular set of four-point functions into products of two three-point functions either preserving or violating spectral flow number conservation. Based on this analysis we argue that the expression for the amplitude as an integral over the spin of the intermediate operators holds beyond the semiclassical regime, thus corroborating that spectral flow conserving correlators in the AdS3-WZNW model are related by analytic continuation to correlation functions in the H3+-WZNW model.
122296725
Intrinsic normal-ordered vertex operators from the multiloop N-tachyon amplitude
Abstract We construct vertex operators for arbitrary mass level states of the closed bosonic string. Starting from a generalization of the Koba-Nielsen amplitude which is suitable for an arbitrary genus Riemann surface, we read the vertex operators from the residues of the poles for the intermediate states. Since the original expression is metric independent and normal ordered without the need of inventing any regularization scheme, our vertex operators also possess these properties. We discuss their general features.
1383405
Free field realization of superstring theory on AdS3
Fil: Hofman, Diego M. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas; Argentina
125323277
String propagation in non-compact backgrounds
In this lecture we review some recent developments in non-rational conformal field theory, which allow a description of strings moving in non-compact backgrounds. In particular, we discuss recent progress in the SL(2,R) WZW model, which describes string propagation in AdS3.
15805106
String duals of two-dimensional (4,4) supersymmetric gauge theories
We study duals to field theories in two dimensions with = (4, 4) SUSY. The string backgrounds reproduce certain non-perturbative aspects of the dual field theory with a large number of colors Nc and a tunable number of flavors Nf. Different aspects of the two-dimensional field theory are discussed, among them the running of gauge couplings, the spectrum of mesons in Higgs and Coulomb branches, entanglement entropy and the non-relativistic version of our string backgrounds.
118572873
The warped, resolved, deformed conifold gets flavoured
Abstract We discuss a simple transformation that allows to generate S U ( 3 ) structure solutions of Type IIB supergravity with RR fluxes, starting from non-Kahler solutions of Type I supergravity. The method may be applied also in the presence of supersymmetric source branes. We apply this transformation to a solution describing fivebranes wrapped on the S 2 of the resolved conifold with additional flavour fivebrane sources. The resulting solution is a generalisation of the resolved deformed conifold solution of Butti et al. (2005) [1] by the addition of D5 brane and D3 brane sources. We propose that this solution may be interpreted in terms of a combined effect of Higgsing and cascade of Seiberg dualities in the dual field theory.
7812396
Elaborations on the string dual to N = 1 SQCD
In this paper we make further refinements to the duality proposed between N=1 SQCD and certain string (supergravity plus branes) backgrounds, working in the regime of comparable large number of colors and flavors. Using the string theory solutions, we predict different field theory observables and phenomena like Seiberg duality, gauge coupling and its running, the behavior of Wilson and 't Hooft loops, anomalous dimensions of the quark superfields, quartic superpotential coupling and its running, continuous and discrete anomaly matching. We also give evidence for the smooth interpolation between the Higgs and confining vacua. We provide several matchings between field theory and string theory computations.
14066279
Glueballs of super Yang-Mills from wrapped branes
In this paper we study qualitative features of glueballs in = 1 SYM for models of wrapped branes in IIA and IIB backgrounds. The scalar mode, 0++ is found to be a mixture of the dilaton and the internal part of the metric. We carry out the numerical study of the IIB background. The potential found exhibits a mass gap and produces a discrete spectrum without any cut-off. We propose a regularization procedure needed to make these states normalizable.
119279945
WALKING DYNAMICS FROM STRING DUALS
Within the context of a string-theory dual to gauge theories with gauge group SU(Nc) and large Nc, we identify a class of solutions to the background equations for which a suitably defined dual of the gauge coupling exhibits the features of a walking theory. We find evidence for three distinct, dynamically generated scales, characterizing walking, symmetry breaking and confinement, and we put them in correspondence with field theory by an analysis of the operators driving the flow.