6 pages, 4 figures; typos corrected and reference added; contribution to the proceedings of the 3rd workshop of the RTN project 'Constituents, Fundamental Forces and Symmetries of the Universe', Valencia
We give an elementary introduction to the recent derivation of the effective low-energy gauge theories of D3-branes probing orientifolds of toric Calabi-Yau 3-fold singularities via brane tiling techniques.
We investigate orientifold of brane tilings. We clarify how the cancellations of gauge anomaly and Witten's anomaly are guaranteed by the conservation of the D5-brane charge. We also discuss the relation between brane tilings and the dual Calabi-Yau cones realized as the moduli spaces of gauge theories. Two types of flavor D5-branes in brane tilings and corresponding superpotentials of fundamental quark fields are proposed, and it is shown that the massless loci of these quarks in the moduli space correctly reproduce the worldvolume of flavor D7-branes in the Calabi-Yau cone dual to the fivebr…
The effect of NS 5 branes on an orientifold is studied. The orientifold is allowed to pass through a pile of k NS branes forming a regularized CHS geometry. Its effect on open strings in its vicinity is used to study the change in the orientifold charge induced by the NS branes.
A new class of six-dimensional asymmetric orientifolds is considered where the orientifold operation is combined with T-duality. The models are supersymmetric in the bulk, but the cancellation of the tadpoles requires the introduction of brane configurations that break supersymmetry. These can be described by D7-brane anti-brane pairs, non-BPS D8-branes or D9-brane anti-brane pairs. The transition between these different configurations and their stability is analysed in detail.
The complete D-brane spectrum in $\Zop_2$ orientifolds is computed. Stable non-BPS D-branes with both integral and torsion charges are found. The relation to K-theory is discussed and a new K-theory relevant to orientifolds is suggested.
We study branes and orientifolds on the group manifold of SO(3). We consider particularly the case of the equatorial branes, which are projective planes. We show that a Dirac-Born-Infeld action can be defined on them, although they are not orientable. We find that there are two orientifold projections with the same spacetime action, which differ by their action on equatorial branes.
We develop computational tools for the tree-level superpotential of B-branes in Calabi-Yau orientifolds. Our method is based on a systematic implementation of the orientifold projection in the geometric approach of Aspinwall and Katz. In the process we lay down some ground rules for orientifold projections in the derived category.
Continuing the study in hep-th/0004092 and hep-th/0004092, we investigate a non-trivial string dynamical process related to orientifold planes, i.e., the splitting of physical NS-branes and D(p+2)-branes on orientifold Op-planes. Creation or annihilation of physical Dp-branes usually accompanies the splitting process. In the particular case p=4, we use Seiberg-Witten curves as an independent method to check the results.
We discuss some aspects of the physics of branes in the presence of orientifolds and the corresponding worldvolume gauge dynamics. We show that at strong coupling orientifolds sometimes turn into bound states of orientifolds and branes, and give a worldsheet argument for the flip of the sign of an orientifold plane split into two disconnected parts by an NS fivebrane. We also describe the moduli space of vacua of N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories with symplectic and orthogonal gauge groups, and analyze a set of four dimensional N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories with chiral matter content using…
We compute scattering amplitudes involving both R-R and NS-NS fields in the presence of a D-brane or orientifold plane. These provide direct evidence for the anomalous couplings in the D-brane and orientifold actions. The D9-brane and O9-plane are found to couple to the first Pontrjagin class with the expected relative strength.
There is a longstanding puzzle concerned with the existence of Op~-planes with p>=6, which are orientifold p-planes of negative charge with stuck Dp-branes. We study the consistency of configurations with various orientifold planes and propose a resolution to this puzzle. It is argued that O6~-planes are possible in massive IIA theory with odd cosmological constant, while O7~-planes and O8~-planes are not allowed. Various relations between orientifold planes and non-BPS D-branes are also addressed.
We present orientifold models of type IIA string theory with D8-branes compactified on a two torus times a four dimensional orbifold. The orientifold group is chosen such that one coordinate of the two torus is reversed when applying worldsheet parity. RR tadpole cancellation requires D8-branes which wrap 1-cycles on the two torus and transform non-trivially under the orbifold group. These models are T-dual to orientifolds with D4-branes only which admit large volume compactifications. The intersections of the D8-branes are chosen in such a way that supersymmetry is broken in the open string s…
We consider the classification of BPS and non-BPS D-branes in orientifold models. In particular we construct all stable BPS and non-BPS D-branes in the Gimon-Polchinski (GP) and Dabholkar-Park-Blum-Zaffaroni (DPBZ) orientifolds and determine their stability regions in moduli space as well as decay products. We find several kinds of integrally and torsion charged non-BPS D-branes. Certain of these are found to have projective representations of the orientifold $\times$ GSO group on the Chan-Paton factors. It is found that the GP orientifold is not described by equivariant orthogonal K-theory as…
We present the intersecting brane configuration of type IIA string theory corresponding to the meta-stable nonsupersymmetric vacua in four dimensional N=1 supersymmetric SU(N_c) gauge theory with a symmetric flavor, a conjugate symmetric flavor and fundamental flavors. By studying the previously known supersymmetric M5-brane curve, the M-theory lift for this type IIA brane configuration, which consists of NS5-branes, D4-branes, D6-branes and an orientifold 6-plane, is analyzed.
We establish T-duality between NS5 branes stuck on an orientifold 8-plane in type I' and an orientifold construction in type IIB with D7 branes intersecting at angles. Two applications are discussed. For one we obtain new brane constructions, realizing field theories with gauge group a product of symplectic factors, giving rise to a large new class of conformal N=1 theories embedded in string theory. Second, by studying a D2 brane probe in the type I' background, we get some information on the still elusive (0,4) linear sigma model describing a perturbative heterotic string on an ADE singulari…
A classification of D-branes in Type IIB Op^- orientifolds and orbifolds in terms of Real and equivariant KK-groups is given. We classify D-branes intersecting orientifold planes from which are recovered some special limits as the spectrum for D-branes on top of Type I Op^- orientifold and the bivariant classification of Type I D-branes. The gauge group and transformation properties of the low energy effective field theory living in the corresponding unstable D-brane system are computed by extensive use of Clifford algebras. Some speculations about the existence of other versions of KK-groups,…
RR fields in string backgrounds including orientifold planes and branes on top of them are classified by K-theory. Following the idea introduced in hep-th/0103183, we also classify such fluxes by cohomology. Both of them are compared through the Atiyah-Hirzebruch Spectral Sequence. Some new correlations between branes on orientifold planes $Op^\pm$ and obstructions to the existence of some branes are found. Finally, we find a topological condition that avoid the presence of global gauge anomalies in lower dimensional systems.
We investigate Z2 x Z2 orientifolds with group actions involving shifts. A complete classification of possible geometries is presented where also previous work by other authors is included in a unified framework from an intersecting D-brane perspective. In particular, we show that the additional shifts not only determine the topology of the orbifold but also independently the presence of orientifold planes. In the second part, we work out in detail a basis of homological three cycles on shift Z2 x Z2 orientifolds and construct all possible fractional D-branes including rigid ones. A Pati-Salam…
We construct and classify categories of D-branes in orientifolds based on Landau-Ginzburg models and their orbifolds. Consistency of the worldsheet parity action on the matrix factorizations plays the key role. This provides all the requisite data for an orientifold construction after embedding in string theory. One of our main results is a computation of topological field theory correlators on unoriented worldsheets, generalizing the formulas of Vafa and Kapustin-Li for oriented worldsheets, as well as the extension of these results to orbifolds. We also find a doubling of Knoerrer periodicit…
In hep-th/0703135, they have found the type IIA intersecting brane configuration where there exist three NS5-branes, D4-branes and anti-D4-branes. By analyzing the gravitational interaction for the D4-branes in the background of the NS5-branes, the phase structures in different regions of the parameter space were studied in the context of classical string theory. In this paper, by adding the orientifold 4-plane and 6-plane to the above brane configuration, we describe the intersecting brane configurations of type IIA string theory corresponding to the meta-stable nonsupersymmetric vacua of the…
We construct the T duals of certain type IIA brane configurations with one compact dimension (elliptic models) which contain orientifold planes. These configurations realize four-dimensional $\NN=2$ finite field theories. For elliptic models with two negatively charged orientifold six-planes, the T duals are given by D3 branes at singularities in the presence of O7-planes and D7-branes. For elliptic models with two oppositely charged orientifold planes, the T duals are D3 branes at a different kind of orientifold singularities, which do not require D7 branes. We construct the adequate orientif…
We find some lifts to M theory of orientifold and orbifold planes including the O1, O3 and O5 planes of Type IIB and their transformations under SL(2,Z). The possible discrete torsion variants (or K theory classes) are explored, and are interpreted as arising from brane intersections with planes. We find new variants of the O0 and of an orbifold line (OF1) and determine their tensions in some cases. A systematic review of orientifolds, M orientifolds, and known M lifts, with some new clarifications is included together with a discussion of the role of T duality.
We study brane configurations in the presence of orientifold six-planes. After deriving the curves for N=2 supersymmetric SU(Nc) gauge theories with one flavor in the symmetric or antisymmetric representation and Nf fundamental flavors, we rotate the brane configuration, reducing the supersymmetry to N=1. For the case of an antisymmetric flavor and less than two fundamental flavors, nonperturbative effects lead to a brane configuration that is topologically a torus. Using the description of the orientifold six-planes as Dn singularities we discuss the Higgs branches for N=2 brane configuration…
Systems of D3-branes at orientifold singularities can receive non-perturbative D-brane instanton corrections, inducing field theory operators in the 4d effective theory. In certain non-chiral examples, these systems have been realized as the infrared endpoint of a Seiberg duality cascade, in which the D-brane instanton effects arise from strong gauge theory dynamics. We present the first UV duality cascade completion of chiral D3-brane theories, in which the D-brane instantons arise from gauge theory dynamics. Chiral examples are interesting because the instanton fermion zero mode sector is to…
We investigate D-branes in orientifolds of WZW models. A connection between the conformal field theory approach to orientifolds and the target space motivated analysis is established. In particular, we associate previously constructed crosscap states to involutions of the group manifold and their fixed point sets. Whereas our analysis of D-branes in orientifolds of general WZW models is restricted to special D0-branes, we investigate all symmetry preserving branes of SU(2)-orientifolds in detail. For that case, the location of the orientifold fixed point set is independently determined by scat…
We present supersymmetry breaking four dimensional orientifolds of type IIA strings. The compact space is a torus times a four dimensional orbifold. The orientifold group reflects one direction in each torus. RR tadpoles are cancelled by D6-branes intersecting at angles in the torus and in the orbifold. The angles are chosen such that supersymmetry is broken. The resulting four dimensional theories contain chiral fermions. The tadpole cancellation conditions imply that there are no non-abelian gauge anomalies. The models also contain anomaly-free U(1) factors.
We discuss issues related to orientifolds and the brane realization for gauge theories with orthogonal and symplectic groups. We specifically discuss the case of theories with (hidden) global SO(2n) symmetry, from three to six dimensions. We analyze mirror symmetry for three dimensional N=4 gauge theories, Brane Box Models and six-dimensional gauge theories. We also discuss the issue of T-duality for D_n space-time singularities. Stuck D branes on ON^0 planes play an interesting role.
In this review article we study type IIB superstring compactifications in the presence of space-time filling D-branes while preserving N=1 supersymmetry in the effective four-dimensional theory. This amount of unbroken supersymmetry and the requirement to fulfill the consistency conditions imposed by the space-time filling D-branes lead to Calabi-Yau orientifold compactifications. For a generic Calabi-Yau orientifold theory with space-time filling D3- or D7-branes we derive the low-energy spectrum. In a second step we compute the effective N=1 supergravity action which describes in the low-ene…
Giveon and Kutasov have found the type IIA intersecting nonsupersymmetric meta-stable brane configuration where the electric gauge theory superpotential has a quartic term as well as the mass term for quarks. In this paper, by adding the orientifold 6-plane to this brane configuration, we describe the brane configuration corresponding to the meta-stable nonsupersymmetric vacua of the supersymmetric unitary gauge theory with symmetric flavor as well as fundamental flavors.
We study a new class of N=1 supersymmetric orientifolds in six space-time dimensions. The world-sheet parity transformation is combined with a permutation of the internal complex coordinates. In contrast to ordinary orientifolds the twisted sectors contribute to the Klein bottle amplitude leading to new tadpoles to be cancelled by twisted open string sectors. They arise from open strings stretched between D7-branes intersecting at non-trivial angles. We study in detail the Z_3, Z_4 and Z_6 permutational orientifolds obtaining in all cases anomaly free massless spectra.
We determine all D-branes in the non-tachyonic 0'B orientifold, examine their world-volume anomalies and study orbifold compactifications. We find that the spectrum of the D-branes contains chiral fermions in the symmetric, antisymmetric and fundamental representations of (unitary) gauge groups on the branes. The cancellation of the world-volume anomalies requires Wess-Zumino terms which we determine explicitly. We examine a non-tachyonic compactification to 9D whose closed part interpolates between 0B and IIB and revisit compactifications on orbifolds. The D3-brane allows to conjecture, via t…
We construct orientifolds of type IIA string theory. The theory is compactified on a T^6/Z_N times Z_M orbifold. In addition worldsheet parity in combination with a reflection of three compact directions is modded out. Tadpole cancellation requires to add D-6-branes at angles. The resulting four dimensional theories are N=1 supersymmetric and non-chiral.
We present brane constructions in Type IIA string theory for N=1 supersymmetric SO and Sp gauge theories with tensor representations using an orientifold 6-plane. One limit of these set-ups corresponds to N=2 theories previously constructed by Landsteiner and Lopez, while a different limit yields N=1 SO or Sp theories with a massless tensor and no superpotential. For the Sp-type orientifold projection comparison with the field theory moduli space leads us to postulate two new rules governing the stability of configurations of D-branes intersecting the orientifold. Lifting one of our configurat…
We obtain the one-loop propagators in superstring theory for the general case when the worldsheet fields satisfy non-trivial holonomy and/or boundary conditions. Non-trivial holonomy arises in orbifold and orientifold backgrounds whereas non-trivial boundary conditions arise in backgrounds containing D-branes of different dimensionality or D-branes intersecting each other at an angle. In our derivation, we use a generalized version of the method of images. Dihedral groups play a crucial role in constructing the one-loop propagators.
A T-dual version of the Gimon-Polchinski orientifold can be described by a configuration of intersecting Dirichlet seven branes and orientifold seven planes in the classical limit. We study modification of this background due to quantum corrections. It is shown that non-perturbative effects split each orientifold plane into a pair of nearly parallel seven branes. Furthermore, a pair of intersecting orientifold planes, instead of giving rise to two pairs of intersecting seven branes, gives just one pair of seven branes, each representing a pair of nearly orthogonal seven branes smoothly joined …
We study a certain class of four-dimensional N=1 supersymmetric orientifolds for which the world-sheet parity transformation is combined with a complex conjugation in the compact directions. We investigate in detail the orientifolds of the Z_3, Z_4, Z_6 and Z_6' toroidal orbifolds finding solutions to the tadpole cancellation conditions for all models. Generically, all the massless spectra turn out to be non-chiral.
We study complex structure deformations of special Lagrangian cycles associated to fractional D-branes at $\mathbb{Z}_2$ singularities in Type II/$Ω\mathcal{R}$ orientifold models. By means of solving hypersurface constraints, we show how to compute the volumes of the most simple D-brane configurations. These volumes are given as a function of the deformation parameters depending on the D-brane position relative to the smoothed out singularity. We observe which cycles keep the special Lagrangian property in various deformation scenarios and what orientifold involutions are allowed. As expected…
Starting with configurations of fourbranes, fivebranes, sixbranes and orientifolds in Type IIA string theory we derive via M-theory the curves solving N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories with gauge groups SO(N) and Sp(2N). We also obtain new curves describing theories with product gauge groups. A crucial role in the discussion is played by the interaction of the orientifolds with the NS-fivebranes.
Using a Kaluza-Klein reduction of the Dirac-Born-Infeld and Chern-Simons action we compute the four dimensional N=1 effective action for the massless modes of a D7-brane which is wrapped on a four-cycle of a compact Calabi-Yau orientifold. We do not consider a specific orientifold but instead determine the Kahler potential, the gauge kinetic functions and the scalar potential in terms of geometrical data of a generic orientifold and its wrapped four-cycle. In particular we derive the couplings of the D-brane excitations to the bulk moduli of the orientifold as they are important for the study …
We determine the structure of the Chan-Paton factors of the open strings ending on space filling D-branes in Type II orientifolds. Through the analysis, we obtain a rule concerning possible distribution of O-plane types. The result is applied to classify the topology of D-branes in terms of Fredholm operators and K-theory, deriving a proposal made earlier and extending it to more general cases. It is also applied to compactifications with N=1 supersymmetry in four-dimensions. We adapt and develop the language of category in this context, and use it to describe some decay channels.
We discuss supersymmetry breaking via 3-form fluxes in chiral supersymmetric type IIB orientifold vacua with D3- and D7-branes. After a general discussion of possible choices of fluxes allowing for stabilizing of a part of the moduli, we determine the resulting effective action including all soft supersymmetry breaking terms. We also extend the computation of our previous work concerning the matter field metrics arising from various open string sectors, in particular focusing on the 1/2 BPS D3/D7-brane configuration. Afterwards, the F-theory lift of our constructions is investigated.
We present special classes of orientifold models involving supersymmetry breaking via branes at angles. Type II superstring theories are compactified on a two torus times a four-dimensional orbifold. Combining worldsheet parity with a reflection of half of the compact coordinates leads to D6-branes at angles which are mapped onto each other by the orbifold group, while applying the geometric action only along one coordinate leads to intersecting D8-branes with non-trivial transformation properties under the orbifold group. The models differ in the gauge groups and matter content.
We report on the gauged supergravity analysis of Type IIB vacua on K3x T2/Z2 orientifold in the presence of D3-D7-branes and fluxes. We discuss supersymmetric critical points correspond to Minkowski vacua and the related fixing of moduli, finding agreement with previous analysis. An important role is played by the choice of the symplectic holomorphic sections of special geometry which enter the computation of the scalar potential. The related period matrix N is explicitly given. The relation between the special geometry and the Born--Infeld action for the brane moduli is elucidated.
Dualities between certain supersymmetric gauge field theories in three and four dimensions have been studied in considerable detail recently, by realizing them as geometric manipulations of configurations of extended objects in type II string theory. These extended objects include `D-branes' and `NS-(five)branes'. In constructing the brane configurations which realize dualities for orthogonal and symplectic gauge groups, an `orientifold' was introduced, which results in non-orientable string sectors. Certain features of orientifolded NS-branes -such as their existence- were assumed in the orig…
We study fractional D-branes in the Type-IIA theory on a non-compact orientifold of the orbifold C^3/Z_3 in the boundary state formalism. We find that the fractional D0-branes of the orbifold theory become unstable due to the presence of a tachyon, while there is a stable D-instanton whose tachyon gets projected out. We propose that the D-instanton is obtained after tachyon condensation. We evidence this by calculating the Whitehead group of the Abelian category of objects corresponding to the boundary states as being isomorphic to Z_2.
With model building applications in mind, we collect and develop basic techniques to analyze the landscape of D7-branes in type IIB compact Calabi-Yau orientifolds, in three different pictures: F-theory, the D7 worldvolume theory and D9-anti-D9 tachyon condensation. A significant complication is that consistent D7-branes in the presence of O7^- planes are generically singular, with singularities locally modeled by the Whitney Umbrella. This invalidates the standard formulae for charges, moduli space and flux lattice dimensions. We infer the correct formulae by comparison to F-theory and derive…
D6-branes intersecting at angles allow for phenomenologically appealing constructions of four dimensional string theory vacua. While it is straightforward to obtain non-supersymmetric realizations of the standard model, supersymmetric and stable models with three generations and no exotic chiral matter require more involved orbifold constructions. The T^6/(Z_4 x Z_2 x OmegaR) case is discussed in detail. Other orbifolds including fractional D6-branes are treated briefly.
The standard extremal p-brane solutions in supergravity are known to allow for a generalisation which consists of adding a linear dependence on the world-volume coordinates to the usual harmonic function. In this note we demonstrate that remarkably this generalisation goes through in exactly the same way for p-branes with fluxes added to it that correspond to fractional p-branes. We relate this to warped orientifold compactifications by trading the Dp-branes for Op-planes that solve the RR tadpole condition. This allows us to interpret the worldvolume dependence as due to lower-dimensional sca…
We discuss the construction of six- and four-dimensional Type IIB orientifolds with vanishing untwisted RR tadpoles, but generically non-zero twisted RR tadpoles. Tadpole cancellation requires the introduction of D-brane systems with zero untwisted RR charge, but non-zero twisted RR charges. We construct explicit models containing branes and antibranes at fixed points of the internal space, or non-BPS branes partially wrapped on it. The models are non-supersymmetric, but are absolutely stable against decay to supersymmetric vacua. For particular values of the compactification radii tachyonic m…
A generalized Chan-Paton construction is presented which is analogous to the tensor product of vector bundles. To this end open string theories are considered where the space of states decomposes into sectors whose product is described by a semigroup. The cyclicity properties of the open string theory are used to prove that the relevant semigroups are direct unions of Brandt semigroups. The known classification of Brandt semigroups then implies that all such theories have the structure of a theory with Dirichlet-branes. We also describe the structure of an arbitrary orientifold group, and show…
We investigate intersecting D6-branes on an orientifold of type IIA theory in the orbifold background T^6/(Z_4 x Z_2) with the emphasis on finding chiral spectra. RR tadpole cancellation conditions and the scalar potential at disc level are computed. The general chiral spectrum is displayed, and two supersymmetric models with a Pati-Salam group are shown,one with four generations and the other one with three generations and exactly the chiral matter content of the SM plus right handed neutrinos.
Starting from a peculiar orientifold projection proposed long ago by Angelantonj and Cardella, we elaborate on a novel perturbative scenario that involves only D-branes, together with the two types of orientifold planes ${\rm O}_{\pm}$ and anti-orientifold planes $\overline{\rm O}_{\pm}$. We elucidate the microscopic ingredients of such models, connecting them to a novel realization of brane supersymmetry breaking. Depending on the position of the D-branes in the internal space, supersymmetry can be broken at the string scale on branes, or alternatively only at the massive level. The main nove…
We give a detailed microscopic derivation of gauge and stringy instanton generated superpotentials for gauge theories living on D3-branes at Z_3-orientifold singularities. Gauge instantons are generated by D(-1)-branes and lead to Affleck, Dine and Seiberg (ADS) like superpotentials in the effective N=1 gauge theories with three generations of bifundamental and anti/symmetric matter. Stringy instanton effects are generated by Euclidean ED3-branes wrapping four-cycles on T^6/\Z_3. They give rise to Majorana masses in one case and non-renormalizable superpotentials for the other cases. Finally w…
In this paper, we work out in detail the tadpole cancellation conditions as well as the generalized Green-Schwarz mechanism for type IIB orientifold compactifications with D3- and D7-branes. We find that not only the well-known D3- and D7-tadpole conditions have to be satisfied, but in general also the vanishing of the induced D5-brane charges leads to a non-trivial constraint. In fact, for the case $h^{1,1}_{-} \neq 0$ the latter condition is important for the cancellation of chiral anomalies. We also extend our analysis by including D9- as well as D5-branes and determine the rules for comput…
The potential of a configuration of two Dirichlet branes for which the number of ND-directions is eight is determined. Depending on whether one of the branes is an anti-brane or a brane, the potential vanishes or is twice as large as the dilaton-gravitational potential. This is shown to be related to the fact that a fundamental string is created when two such branes cross. Special emphasis is given to the D0-D8 system, for which an interpretation of these results in terms of the massive IIA supergravity is presented. It is also shown that the branes cannot move non-adiabatically in the transve…
We use F-theory to derive a general expression for the flux potential of type II compactifications with D7/D3 branes, including open string moduli and 2-form fluxes on the branes. Our main example is F-theory on K3 $\times$ K3 and its orientifold limit T^2/Z_2 x K3. The full scalar potential cannot be derived from the bulk superpotential W=\int Ω\wedge G_3 and generically destabilizes the orientifold. Generically all open and closed string moduli are fixed, except for a volume factor. An alternative formulation of the problem in terms of the effective supergravity is given and we construct an …
We describe a new class of supersymmetric orientifolds which combine the world-sheet parity transformation with a complex conjugation in the compact directions. As an example, we investigate in detail the orientifold of the Z_3 toroidal orbifold in six and four dimensions. We demonstrate how the solution to the tadpole cancellation conditions, the resulting gauge groups and the massless spectra depend on the choice of the complex structures on the tori, giving rise to a variety of inequivalent models. We also summarize the results for the orientifolds of the Z_4, Z_6 and Z_6' orbifolds in four…
Recently, a D-brane construction in type IIA string theory was shown to yield the electric/magnetic duality of four dimensional N=1 supersymmetric U(N_c) gauge theories with N_f flavours of quark. We present here an extension of that construction which yields the electric/magnetic duality for the SO(N_c) and USp(N_c) gauge theories with N_f quarks, by adding an orientifold plane which is consistent with the supersymmetry. Due to the intersection of the orientifold plane with the NS-NS fivebranes already present, new features arise which are crucial in determining the correct final structure of…
In this thesis we study string theory with D-branes and possibly orientifolds in curved or time-dependent spaces. Our study aims at understanding some aspects of curved and time-dependent spaces, notably because of their importance in cosmology. The first chapter introduces some bases of string theory. The second chapter studies non-oriented strings on compact groups SU(2) and SO(3): after reviewing known results about D-branes in such spaces, we present our results on the position of orientifolds and their interaction with open and closed strings. The third chapter studies D-branes in certain…
This review article provides a pedagogical introduction into various classes of chiral string compactifications to four dimensions with D-branes and fluxes. The main concern is to provide all necessary technical tools to explicitly construct four-dimensional orientifold vacua, with the final aim to come as close as possible to the supersymmetric Standard Model. Furthermore, we outline the available methods to derive the resulting four-dimensional effective action. Finally, we summarize recent attempts to address the string vacuum problem via the statistical approach to D-brane models.
In this paper we consider the gauge theory living on the world-volume of a stack of N D3-branes of Type 0B/Ω' I_6(-1)^{F_{L}} and of its orbifolds C^2/Z_2 and C^3/(Z_2 x Z_2). The gauge theories obtained in the three cases are a brane realization of ``orientifold field theories'' having the bosonic sector common with N=4,2,1 super Yang-Mills respectively. In these non-supersymmetric theories, we investigate the possibility of keeping the gauge/gravity correspondence that has revealed itself so successful in the case of supersymmetric theories. In the open string framework we compute the coeffi…