Directed search, rationing and wage dispersion

This paper develops a microeconomic model of directed search, where firms are heterogeneous in the number of vacancies advertised, and wages affect workers' choices when both applying for jobs and accepting a job. An aggregate matching function is derived, which incorporates workers' preferences for firms. The aggregate level of matches is shown to be independent of the workers' preferences in the job acceptance stage. When firms' labor demands are heterogeneous, the matching market equilibrium outcome is suboptimal. Matching efficiency is, however, attained in equilibrium, when wages are employed as a rationing device. This results in wage dispersion, despite workers being homogeneous

Minimal redefinition of the OSV ensemble

In the interesting conjecture, Z_{BH} = |Z_{top}|^2, proposed by Ooguri, Strominger and Vafa (OSV), the black hole ensemble is a mixed ensemble and the resulting degeneracy of states, as obtained from the ensemble inverse-Laplace integration, suffers from prefactors which do not respect the electric-magnetic duality. One idea to overcome this deficiency, as claimed recently, is imposing nontrivial measures for the ensemble sum. We address this problem and upon a redefinition of the OSV ensemble whose variables are as numerous as the electric potentials, show that for restoring the symmetry no non-Euclidean measure is needful. In detail, we rewrite the OSV free energy as a function of new variables which are combinations of the electric-potentials and the black hole charges. Subsequently the Legendre transformation which bridges between the entropy and the black hole free energy in terms of these variables, points to a generalized ensemble. In this context, we will consider all the cases of relevance: small and large black holes, with or without D_6-brane charge. For the case of vanishing D_6-brane charge, the new ensemble is pure canonical and the electric-magnetic duality is restored exactly, leading to proper results for the black hole degeneracy of states. For more general cases, the construction still works well as far as the violation of the duality by the corresponding OSV result is restricted to a prefactor. In a concrete example we shall show that for black holes with non-vanishing D_6-brane charge, there are cases where the duality violation goes beyond this restriction, thus imposing non-trivial measures is incapable of restoring the duality. This observation signals for a deeper modification in the OSV proposal.Comment: 23 pages, v2: minor change

D-branes in Topological Minimal Models: the Landau-Ginzburg Approach

We study D-branes in topologically twisted N=2 minimal models using the Landau-Ginzburg realization. In the cases of A and D-type minimal models we provide what we believe is an exhaustive list of topological branes and compute the corresponding boundary OPE algebras as well as all disk correlators. We also construct examples of topological branes in E-type minimal models. We compare our results with the boundary state formalism, where possible, and find agreement.Comment: 29 pages, late

Non-compact Mirror Bundles and (0,2) Liouville Theories

We study (0,2) deformations of N=2 Liouville field theory and its mirror duality. A gauged linear sigma model construction of the ultraviolet theory connects (0,2) deformations of Liouville field theory and (0,2) deformations of N=2 SL(2,R)/U(1) coset model as a mirror duality. Our duality proposal from the gauged linear sigma model completely agrees with the exact CFT analysis. In the context of heterotic string compactifications, the deformation corresponds to the introduction of a non-trivial gauge bundle. This non-compact Landau-Ginzburg construction yields a novel way to study the gauge bundle moduli for non-compact Calabi-Yau manifolds.Comment: 34 page

D-brane Categories for Orientifolds -- The Landau-Ginzburg Case

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 periodicity in the orientifold context.Comment: 45 pages, 6 figure

Strings on pp-waves and massive two dimensional field theories

We find a general class of pp-wave solutions of type IIB string theory such that the light cone gauge worldsheet lagrangian is that of an interacting massive field theory. When the light cone Lagrangian has (2,2) supersymmetry we can find backgrounds that lead to arbitrary superpotentials on the worldsheet. We consider situations with both flat and curved transverse spaces. We describe in some detail the background giving rise to the N=2 sine Gordon theory on the worldsheet. Massive mirror symmetry relates it to the deformed $CP^1$ model (or sausage model) which seems to elude a purely supergravity target space interpretation.Comment: harvmac, 26 pages, v2,3: references added, typos correcte

N=2 Supersymmetric Sigma Models and D-branes

We study D-branes of N=2 supersymmetric sigma models. Supersymmetric nonlinear sigma models with 2-dimensional target space have D0,D1,D2-branes, which are realized as A-,B-type supersymmetric boundary conditions on the worldsheet. When we embed the models in the string theory, the Kahler potential is restricted and leads to a 2-dim black hole metric with a dilaton background. The D-branes in this model are susy cycles and consistent with the analysis of conjugacy classes. The generalized metrics with U(n) isometry is proposed and dynamics on them are realized by linear sigma models. We investigate D-branes of the linear sigma models and compare the results with those in the nonlinear sigma models.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figure