Open Spinning Strings

We find classical open string solutions in the AdS_5\times S^5/\Zop_2 orientifold with angular momenta along the five-sphere. The energy of these solutions has an expansion in integral powers of $\lambda$ with sigma-model corrections suppressed by inverse powers of $J$ - the total angular momentum. This gives a prediction for the exact anomalous dimensions of operators in the large $N$ limit of an ${\cal N}=2$ $Sp(N)$ Super-Yang-Mills theory with matter. We also find a simple map between open and closed string solutions. This gives a prediction for an all-loop planar relationship between the anomalous dimensions of single-trace and two-quark operators in the dual gauge theory

PP-Wave Light-Cone Superstring Field Theory

We construct the cubic interaction vertex and dynamically generated supercharges in light-cone superstring field theory in the pp-wave background. We show that these satisfy the pp-wave superalgebra at first order in string coupling. The cubic interaction vertex and dynamical supercharges presented here differ from the expressions previously given in the literature. Using this vertex we compute various string theory three-point functions and comment on their relation to gauge theory in the BMN limit.Comment: 32 pages, 1 figure; v2: typos corrected, reference adde

Super spin chain coherent state actions and AdS5×S5AdS_5 \times S^5 superstring

We consider a generalization of the leading-order matching of coherent state actions for semiclassical states on the super Yang-Mills and the superstring sides of the AdS/CFT duality to sectors with fermions. In particular, we discuss the $SU(1|1)$ and $SU(2|3)$ sectors containing states with angular momentum $J$ in $S^5$ and spin in $AdS_5$. On the SYM side, we start with the dilatation operator in the $SU(2|3)$ sector having super spin chain Hamiltonian interpretation and derive the corresponding coherent state action which is quartic in fermions. This action has essentially the same ``Landau-Lifshitz'' form as the action in the bosonic SU(3) sector with the target space $CP^2$ replaced by the projective superspace $CP^{2|2}$. We then attempt to relate it to the corresponding truncation of the full $AdS_5 \times S^5$ superstring action written in a light-cone gauge where it has simple quartic fermionic structure. In particular, we find that part of the superstring action describing $SU(1|1)$ sector reduces to an action of a massive two-dimensional relativistic fermion, with the expansion in the effective coupling $\lambda/J^2$ being equivalent to a non-relativistic expansion

On the Uniqueness of Plane-wave String Field Theory

We prove that the two interaction Hamiltonians of light-cone closed superstring field theory in the plane-wave background present in the literature are identical.Comment: 15 pages late

Integrability and the AdS(3)/CFT(2) correspondence

We investigate the AdS(3)/CFT(2) correspondence for theories with 16 supercharges using the integrability approach. We construct Green-Schwarz actions for Type IIB strings on AdS(3)xS(3)xM(4) where M(4)=T(4) or S(3)xS(1) using the coset approach. These actions are based on a Z(4) automorphism of the super-coset D(2,1;alpha)xD(2,1;alpha)/SO(1,2)xSO(3)xSO(3). The equations of motion admit a representation in terms of a Lax connection, showing that the system is classically integrable. We present the finite gap equations for these actions. When alpha=0,1/2,1 we propose a set of quantum Bethe equations valid at all values of the coupling. The AdS(3)/CFT(2) duals contain novel massless modes whose role remains to be explored.Comment: 43 pages, 4 figures; v2: misprints corrected; v3: clarifications on validity of quantum Bethe equations added in sec. 7.4, misprints correcte

On Type IIA geometries dual to N = 2 SCFTs

We provide explicit solutions of Type IIA supergravity which are believed to be dual to N = 2 superconformal four dimensional gauge theories. These explicit solutions are based on the general ansatz for such a type of backgrounds introduced by Gaiotto and Maldacena.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures; minor corrections, references correcte

Supermembrane actions for Gaiotto-Maldacena backgrounds

We write down the supermembrane actions for M-theory backgrounds dual to general N = 2 four-dimensional superconformal field theories. The actions are given to all orders in fermions and are in a particular k-gauge. When an extra U(1) isometry is present our actions reduce to k-gauge fixed Green-Schwarz actions for the corresponding Type IIA backgrounds

WZ Couplings of D-branes and O-planes

In this short note we review the construction and role of Wess-Zumino couplings of Dirichlet branes and Orientifold planes, and show how these combine to give the Green-Schwarz anomaly cancelling terms

Open Semiclassical Strings and Long Defect Operators in AdS/dCFT Correspondence

We consider defect composite operators in a defect superconformal field theory obtained by inserting an AdS_4 x S^2-brane in the AdS_5 x S^5 background. The one-loop dilatation operator for the scalar sector is represented by an integrable open spin chain. We give a description to construct coherent states for the open spin chain. Then, by evaluating the expectation value of the Hamiltonian with the coherent states in a long operator limit, a Landau-Lifshitz type of sigma model action is obtained. This action is also derived from the string action and hence we find a complete agreement in both SYM and string sides. We see that an SO(3)_H pulsating string solution is included in the action and its energy completely agrees with the result calculated in a different method. In addition, we argue that our procedure would be applicable to other AdS-brane cases.Comment: 22 pages, 1 figure, LaTeX, minor corrections and references added. v3) some new results added. shortened and accepted version in PR

Orientifolds and K-theory

Recently it has been shown that D-branes in orientifolds are not always described by equivariant Real K-theory. In this paper we define a previously unstudied twisted version of equivariant Real K-theory which gives the D-brane spectrum for such orientifolds. We find that equivariant Real K-theory can be twisted by elements of a generalised group cohomology. This cohomology classifies all orientifolds just as group cohomology classifies all orbifolds. As an example we consider the \Omega\times\I_4 orientifolds. We completely determine the equivariant orthogonal K-theory KO_{\Zop_2}(\R^{p,q}) and analyse the twisted versions. Agreement is found between K-theory and Boundary Confromal Field Theory (BCFT) results for both integrally- and torsion-charged D-branes