Critical Wilson Lines in Toroidal Compactifications of Heteroric Strings

Critical values of Wilson lines and general background fields for toroidal compactifications of heterotic string theories are constructed systematically using Dynkin diagrams.Comment: 32 pages, LATE

New developments in special geometry

We review recent developments in special geometry, emphasizing the role of real coordinates. In the first part we discuss the para-complex geometry of vector and hypermultiplets in rigid Euclidean N=2 supersymmetry. In the second part we study the variational principle governing the near horizon limit of BPS black holes in matter-coupled N=2 supergravity and observe that the black hole entropy is the Legendre transform of the Hesse potential encoding the geometry of the scalar fields.Comment: 27 pages, contributed to the Handbook on Pseudo-Riemannian Geometry and Supersymmetr

Topological Transitions and Enhancon-like Geometries in Calabi-Yau Compactifications of M-Theory

We study the impact of topological phase transitions of the internal Calabi-Yau threefold on the space-time geometry of five-dimensional extremal black holes and black strings. For flop transitions and SU(2) gauge symmetry enhancement we show that solutions can always be continued and that the behaviour of metric, gauge fields and scalars can be characterized in a model independent way. Then we look at supersymmetric solutions which describe naked singularities rather than geometries with a horizon. For black strings we show that the solution cannot become singular as long as the scalar fields take values inside the Kahler cone. For black holes we establish the same result for the elliptic fibrations over the Hirzebruch surfaces F_0, F_1, F_2. These three models exhibit a behaviour similar to the enhancon, since one runs into SU(2) enhancement before reaching the apparent singularity. Using the proper continuation inside the enhancon radius one finds that the solution is regular.Comment: 7 page

Hessian geometry and the holomorphic anomaly

We present a geometrical framework which incorporates higher derivative corrections to the action of N = 2 vector multiplets in terms of an enlarged scalar manifold which includes a complex deformation parameter. This enlarged space carries a deformed version of special Kahler geometry which we characterise. The holomorphic anomaly equation arises in this framework from the integrability condition for the existence of a Hesse potential.Comment: 43 pages. Revised version: minimal changes. Final version, accepted for publication by JHE

Effective Supergravity Actions for Conifold Transitions

We construct gauged supergravity actions which describe the dynamics of M-theory on a Calabi-Yau threefold in the vicinity of a conifold transition. The actions explicitly include N charged hypermultiplets descending from wrapped M2-branes which become massless at the conifold point. While the vector multiplet sector can be treated exactly, we approximate the hypermultiplet sector by the non-compact Wolf spaces X(1+N). The effective action is then uniquely determined by the charges of the wrapped M2-branes.Comment: 57 pages, no figure

Non-extremal and non-BPS extremal five-dimensional black strings from generalized special real geometry

We construct non-extremal as well as extremal black string solutions in minimal five-dimensional supergravity coupled to vector multiplets using dimensional reduction to three Euclidean dimensions. Our method does not assume that the scalar manifold is a symmetric space, and applies as well to a class of non-supersymmetric theories governed by a generalization of special real geometry. We find that five-dimensional black string solutions correspond to geodesics in a specific totally geodesic para-K\"ahler submanifold of the scalar manifold of the dimensionally reduced theory, and identify the subset of geodesics that corresponds to regular black string solutions in five dimensions. BPS and non-BPS extremal solutions are distinguished by whether the corresponding geodesics are along the eigendirections of the para-complex structure or not, a characterization which carries over to non-supersymmetric theories. For non-extremal black strings the values of the scalars at the outer and inner horizon are not independent integration constants but determined by certain functions of the charges and moduli. By lifting solutions from three to four dimensions we obtain non-extremal versions of small black holes, and find that while the outer horizon takes finite size, the inner horizon is still degenerate.Comment: 46 page