Higher order dilaton gravity: brane equations of motion in the covariant formulation

Dilaton gravity with general brane localized interactions is investigated. Models with corrections up to arbitrary order in field derivatives are considered. Effective gravitational equations of motion at the brane are derived in the covariant approach. Dependence of such brane equations on the bulk quantities is discussed. It is shown that the number of the bulk independent brane equations of motion depends strongly on the symmetries assumed for the model and for the background. Examples with two and four derivatives of the fields are presented in more detail.Comment: 32 pages, references added, discussion extended, typos corrected, version to be publishe

Quantum equivalence in Poisson-Lie T-duality

We prove that, general \s-models related by Poisson-Lie T-duality are quantum equivalent under one-loop renormalization group flow. We reveal general properties of the flows, we study the associated generalized coset models and provide explicit examples.Comment: 16 page

Ricci flows and expansion in axion-dilaton cosmology

We study renormalization-group flows by deforming a class of conformal sigma-models. We consider overall scale factor perturbation of Einstein spaces as well as more general anisotropic deformations of three-spheres. At leading order in alpha, renormalization-group equations turn out to be Ricci flows. In the three-sphere background, the latter is the Halphen system, which is exactly solvable in terms of modular forms. We also analyze time-dependent deformations of these systems supplemented with an extra time coordinate and time-dependent dilaton. In some regimes time evolution is identified with renormalization-group flow and time coordinate can appear as Liouville field. The resulting space-time interpretation is that of a homogeneous isotropic Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe in axion-dilaton cosmology. We find as general behaviour the superposition of a big-bang (polynomial) expansion with a finite number of oscillations at early times. Any initial anisotropy disappears during the evolution.Comment: 22 page

Nearly K\"ahler heterotic compactifications with fermion condensates

We revisit AdS_4 heterotic compactifications on nearly K\"ahler manifolds in the presence of H-flux and certain fermion condensates. Unlike previous studies, we do not assume the vanishing of the supersymmetry variations. Instead we determine the full equations of motion originating from the ten-dimensional action, and subsequently we provide explicit solutions to them on nearly K\"ahler manifolds at first order in alpha'. The Bianchi identity is also taken into account in order to guarantee the absence of all anomalies. In the presence of H-flux, which is identified with the torsion of the internal space, as well as of fermion condensates in the gaugino and dilatino sectors, new solutions are determined. These solutions provide a full classification of consistent backgrounds of heterotic supergravity under our assumptions. All the new solutions are non-supersymmetric, while previously known supersymmetric ones are recovered too. Our results indicate that fully consistent (supersymmetric or not) heterotic vacua on nearly K\"ahler manifolds are scarce, even on AdS_4, and they can be completely classified.Comment: 1+17 pages, 1 figure; v2: remark and two references added, published versio

Bundles over Nearly-Kahler Homogeneous Spaces in Heterotic String Theory

We construct heterotic vacua based on six-dimensional nearly-Kahler homogeneous manifolds and non-trivial vector bundles thereon. Our examples are based on three specific group coset spaces. It is shown how to construct line bundles over these spaces, compute their properties and build up vector bundles consistent with supersymmetry and anomaly cancelation. It turns out that the most interesting coset is $SU(3)/U(1)^2$. This space supports a large number of vector bundles which lead to consistent heterotic vacua, some of them with three chiral families.Comment: 32 pages, reference adde

A supersymmetric consistent truncation for conifold solutions

We establish a supersymmetric consistent truncation of type IIB supergravity on the T^{1,1} coset space, based on extending the Papadopoulos-Tseytlin ansatz to the full set of SU(2)xSU(2) invariant Kaluza-Klein modes. The five-dimensional model is a gauged N=4 supergravity with three vector multiplets, which incorporates various conifold solutions and is suitable for the study of their dynamics. By analysing the scalar potential we find a family of new non-supersymmetric AdS_5 extrema interpolating between a solution obtained long ago by Romans and a solution employing an Einstein metric on T^{1,1} different from the standard one. Finally, we discuss some simple consistent subtruncations preserving N=2 supersymmetry. One of them still contains the Klebanov-Strassler solution, and is compatible with the inclusion of smeared D7-branes.Comment: 34 pages, 1 figure; v2: minor changes, references added, appendix C revised; v3: journal versio

Non-abelian T-duality, Ramond Fields and Coset Geometries

We extend previous work on non-abelian T-duality in the presence of Ramond fluxes to cases in which the duality group acts with isotropy such as in backgrounds containing coset spaces. In the process we generate new supergravity solutions related to D-brane configurations and to standard supergravity compactifications.Comment: 35 pages, Late

Dimensional Reduction of the Heterotic String over nearly-Kaehler manifolds

Our aim is to derive the effective action in four dimensions resulting by reducing dimensionally the ten-dimensional ${\cal N}=1$ heterotic supergravity coupled to ${\cal N}=1$ super Yang-Mills over manifolds admitting a nearly-K\"{a}hler structure. Given the fact that all six-dimensional nearly-K\"{a}hler manifolds are included in the class of the corresponding non-symmetric coset spaces plus a group manifold, our procedure amounts in applying the Coset Space Dimensional Reduction scheme using these coset spaces as internal manifolds. In our examination firstly the rules of the reduction of the theory over a general six-dimensional non-symmetric manifold are stated and subsequently a detailed case by case analysis is performed for all the three non-symmetric coset spaces. For each case the four-dimensional scalar potential is derived and the corresponding nearly-K\"{a}hler limit is obtained. Finally, we determine the corresponding supergravity description of the four-dimensional theory employing the heterotic Gukov-Vafa-Witten formula and results of the special K\"{a}hler geometry.Comment: version published in JHEP, minor corrections, added reference

The Worldvolume Action of Kink Solitons in AdS Spacetime

A formalism is presented for computing the higher-order corrections to the worldvolume action of co-dimension one solitons. By modifying its potential, an explicit "kink" solution of a real scalar field in AdS spacetime is found. The formalism is then applied to explicitly compute the kink worldvolume action to quadratic order in two expansion parameters--associated with the hypersurface fluctuation length and the radius of AdS spacetime respectively. Two alternative methods are given for doing this. The results are expressed in terms of the trace of the extrinsic curvature and the intrinsic scalar curvature. In addition to conformal Galileon interactions, we find a non-Galileon term which is never sub-dominant. This method can be extended to any conformally flat bulk spacetime.Comment: 32 pages, 3 figures, typos corrected and additional comments adde

Heterotic domain wall solutions and SU(3) structure manifolds

We examine compactifications of heterotic string theory on manifolds with SU(3) structure. In particular, we study N = 1/2 domain wall solutions which correspond to the perturbative vacua of the 4D, N =1 supersymmetric theories associated to these compactifications. We extend work which has appeared previously in the literature in two important regards. Firstly, we include two additional fluxes which have been, heretofore, omitted in the general analysis of this situation. This allows for solutions with more general torsion classes than have previously been found. Secondly, we provide explicit solutions for the fluxes as a function of the torsion classes. These solutions are particularly useful in deciding whether equations such as the Bianchi identities can be solved, in addition to the Killing spinor equations themselves. Our work can be used to straightforwardly decide whether any given SU(3) structure on a six-dimensional manifold is associated with a solution to heterotic string theory. To illustrate how to use these results, we discuss a number of examples taken from the literature.Comment: 34 pages, minor corrections in second versio