BPS States of Exceptional Non-Critical Strings

We study the BPS states of non-critical strings which arise for zero size instantons of exceptional groups. This is accomplished by using F-theory and M-theory duals and by employing mirror symmetry to compute the degeneracy of membranes wrapped around 2-cycles of the Calabi-Yau threefold. We find evidence for a number of novel physical phenomena, including having infinitely many light states with the first lightest state including a nearly massless gravitino.Comment: 29 pages, 1 figure, references added, to appear in the proceedings of the conference "Advanced Quantum Field Theory'' (in memory of Claude Itzykson

On search for the M-Theory Lagrangian

We present a starting point for the search for a Lagrangian density for M-Theory using characteristic classes for flat foliations of bundles.Comment: Latex, 5 pages, no figure

Entropy of quantum-corrected black holes

The approximate renormalized one-loop effective action of the quantized massive scalar, spinor and vector field in a large mass limit, i.e., the lowest order of the DeWitt-Schwinger expansion involves the coincidence limit of the Hadamard-DeWitt coefficient a3. Building on this and using Wald's approach we shall construct the general expression describing entropy of the spherically-symmetric static black hole being the solution of the semi-classical field equations. For the concrete case of the quantum-corrected Reissner-Nordstrom black hole this result coincides, as expected, with the entropy obtained by integration of the first law of black hole thermodynamics with a suitable choice of the integration constant. The case of the extremal quantum corrected black hole is briefly considered

The Orbifolds of N=2 Superconformal Theories with c=3

We construct Z_M, M= 2, 3, 4, 6 orbifold models of the N=2 superconformal field theories with central charge c=3. Then we check the description of the Z_3, Z_4 and Z_6 orbifolds by the N=2 superconformal Landau-Ginzburg models with c=3, by comparing the spectrum of chiral fields, in particular the Witten index Tr(-1)^F.Comment: 20 pages; typos corrected, references adde

Toric Calabi-Yau supermanifolds and mirror symmetry

We study mirror symmetry of supermanifolds constructed as fermionic extensions of compact toric varieties. We mainly discuss the case where the linear sigma A-model contains as many fermionic fields as there are U(1) factors in the gauge group. In the mirror super-Landau-Ginzburg B-model, focus is on the bosonic structure obtained after integrating out all the fermions. Our key observation is that there is a relation between the super-Calabi-Yau conditions of the A-model and quasi-homogeneity of the B-model, and that the degree of the associated superpotential in the B-model is given in terms of the determinant of the fermion charge matrix of the A-model.Comment: 20 pages, v2: references adde

On the Classification of Quasihomogeneous Functions

We give a criterion for the existence of a non-degenerate quasihomogeneous polynomial in a configuration, i.e. in the space of polynomials with a fixed set of weights, and clarify the relation of this criterion to the necessary condition derived from the formula for the Poincar\'e polynomial. We further prove finiteness of the number of configurations for a given value of the singularity index. For the value 3 of this index, which is of particular interest in string theory, a constructive version of this proof implies an algorithm for the calculation of all non-degenerate configurations.Comment: 12 page