N=4 central charge superspace at work for supergravity coupled to an arbitrary number of abelian vector multiplets

We present the description in central charge superspace of N=4 supergravity with antisymmetric tensor coupled to an arbitrary number of abelian vector multiplets. All the gauge vectors of the coupled system are treated on the same footing as gauge fields corresponding to translations along additional bosonic coordinates. It is the geometry of the antisymmetric tensor which singles out which combinations of these vectors belong to the supergravity multiplet and which are the additional coupled ones. Moreover, basic properties of Chapline-Manton coupling mechanism, as well as the SO(6,n)/SO(6)*SO(n) sigma model of the Yang-Mills scalars are found as arising from superspace geometry.Comment: 18 page

Gauging the Heisenberg algebra of special quaternionic manifolds

We show that in N=2 supergravity, with a special quaternionic manifold of (quaternionic) dimension h_1+1 and in the presence of h_2 vector multiplets, a h_2+1 dimensional abelian algebra, intersecting the 2h_1+3 dimensional Heisenberg algebra of quaternionic isometries, can be gauged provided the h_2+1 symplectic charge--vectors V_I, have vanishing symplectic invariant scalar product V_I X V_J=0. For compactifications on Calabi--Yau three--folds with Hodge numbers (h_1,h_2) such condition generalizes the half--flatness condition as used in the recent literature. We also discuss non--abelian extensions of the above gaugings and their consistency conditions.Comment: 9 pages, LaTe

The Feminist Politics of Choice: Lipstick as a Marketplace Icon

Lipstick has been a dominant beauty practice across cultures and throughout history. Once deemed a sign of Satan, a potential health risk, and even an illegal product, lipstick has experienced centuries of controversy to secure its status as a marketplace icon – albeit a polarising one. Liberating to some; limiting to others. How have such tensions shaped lipstick’s cultural meanings? By examining lipstick’s gendered history, we highlight how lipstick reflects contested feminist politics of choice – regarded as playful and deliberately chosen as well as fostering appearance-based expectations based on idealised feminine beauty. We highlight how lipstick gives rise to tensions between empowerment and oppression across three main themes: self-expression and choice, privilege and choice, and morality and choice. We conclude that for lipstick to be pleasurable and freely chosen, it must first be decoupled from patriarchal standards of ideal feminine beauty for women

Crossing the #BikiniBridge: Exploring the Role of Social Media in Propagating Body Image Trends

A book chapter written by Jenna Drenten and Lauren Gurrieri for The Dark Side of Social Media: A Consumer Psychology Perspective (2017)

Visual Storytelling and Vulnerable Healthcare Consumers: Normalising Practices and Social Support Through Instagram

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how vulnerable healthcare consumers foster social support through visual storytelling in social media in navigating healthcare consumption experiences. Design/methodology/approach: This study employs a dual qualitative approach of visual and textual analysis of 180 Instagram posts from female breast cancer patients and survivors who use the platform to narrate their healthcare consumption experiences. Findings: Our research demonstrates how visual storytelling on social media normalises hidden aspects of healthcare consumption experiences through healthcare disclosures (procedural, corporeal, recovery), normalising practices (providing learning resources, cohering the illness experience, problematising mainstream recovery narratives) and enabling digital affordances, which in turn facilitates social support among vulnerable healthcare consumers. Practical implications: Our research highlights the potential for visual storytelling on social media to address shortcomings in the healthcare service system and contribute to societal wellbeing through co-creative efforts that offer real-time and customised support for vulnerable healthcare consumers. 2 Social implications: This research highlights that visual storytelling on image-based social media offers transformative possibilities for vulnerable healthcare consumers seeking social support in negotiating the challenges of their healthcare consumption experiences. Originality/value: Our research presents a framework of visual storytelling for vulnerable healthcare consumers on image-based social media. Our paper offers three key contributions: that visual storytelling fosters informational and companionship social support for vulnerable healthcare consumers; recognising this occurs through normalising hidden healthcare consumption experiences; and identifying healthcare disclosures, normalising practices and enabling digital affordances as fundamental to this process

G-structures and Domain Walls in Heterotic Theories

We consider heterotic string solutions based on a warped product of a four-dimensional domain wall and a six-dimensional internal manifold, preserving two supercharges. The constraints on the internal manifolds with SU(3) structure are derived. They are found to be generalized half-flat manifolds with a particular pattern of torsion classes and they include half-flat manifolds and Strominger's complex non-Kahler manifolds as special cases. We also verify that previous heterotic compactifications on half-flat mirror manifolds are based on this class of solutions.Comment: 29 pages, reference added, typos correcte

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

Heterotic String Compactifications on Half-flat Manifolds II

In this paper, we continue the analysis of heterotic string compactifications on half-flat mirror manifolds by including the 10-dimensional gauge fields. It is argued, that the heterotic Bianchi identity is solved by a variant of the standard embedding. Then, the resulting gauge group in four dimensions is still E6 despite the fact that the Levi-Civita connection has SO(6) holonomy. We derive the associated four-dimensional effective theories including matter field terms for such compactifications. The results are also extended to more general manifolds with SU(3) structure.Comment: 31 page

Moduli Stabilisation in Heterotic Models with Standard Embedding

In this note we analyse the issue of moduli stabilisation in 4d models obtained from heterotic string compactifications on manifolds with SU(3) structure with standard embedding. In order to deal with tractable models we first integrate out the massive fields. We argue that one can not only integrate out the moduli fields, but along the way one has to truncate also the corresponding matter fields. We show that the effective models obtained in this way do not have satisfactory solutions. We also look for stabilised vacua which take into account the presence of the matter fields. We argue that this also fails due to a no-go theorem for Minkowski vacua in the moduli sector which we prove in the end. The main ingredient for this no-go theorem is the constraint on the fluxes which comes from the Bianchi identity.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX; references adde