Calabi-Yau 3-folds from 2-folds

We consider type IIA string theory on a Calabi-Yau 2-fold with D6-branes wrapping 2-cycles in the 2-fold. We find a complete set of conditions on the supergravity solution for any given wrapped brane configuration in terms of SU(2) structures. We reduce the problem of finding a supergravity solution for the wrapped branes to finding a harmonic function on R$\times$CY$_2$. We then lift this solution to 11-dimensions as a product of R$^{(4.1)}$ and a Calabi-Yau 3-fold. We show how the metric on the 3-fold is determined in terms of the wrapped brane solution. We write down the distinguished (3,0) form and the K{\"a}hler form of the 3-fold in terms of structures defined on the base 2-d complex manifold. We discuss the topology of the 3-fold in terms of the D6-branes and the underlying 2-fold. We show that in addition to the non-trivial cycles inherited from the underlying 2-fold there are $N-1$ new 2-cycles. We construct closed (1,1) forms corresponding to these new cycles. We also display some explicit examples. One of our examples is that of D6-branes wrapping the 2-cycle in an A$_1$ ALE space, the resulting 3-fold has $h^{(1,1)}=N$, where $N$ is the number of D6-branes.Comment: 30 page

Could and Should America Have Made an Ottoman Republic in 1919?

Numerous Americans, perhaps especially American lawyers, have since the 1780s presumed to tell other peoples how to govern themselves. In 2006, that persistent impulse was once again echoed in an address to the American Bar Association by a Justice of the Supreme Court. The purpose of this essay is to question the wisdom of this evangelical ambition, especially when the form of instruction includes military force. It is draws on Spreading America\u27s Word (2005) and directs attention to the hopes of American Protestant Zionists to make a democratic republic in Ottoman Palestine. It suggests that chances were better in 1919 than they are in 2008, but were none to good at that time. It rejects the appeal of the militant neo-conservatives who expressed their hopes and expectations in The Project for A New American Century, an instrument that should be read and remembered for centuries to come

Splitting of macroscopic fundamental strings in flat space and holographic hadron decays

In this review article we present the calculation of the splitting rate in flat space of a macroscopic fundamental string either intersecting at a generic angle a Dp-brane or lying on it. The result is then applied, in the context of the string/gauge theory correspondence, to the study of exclusive decay rates of large spin mesons into mesons. As examples, we discuss the cases of N=4 SYM with a small number of flavors, and of QCD-like theories in the quenched approximation. In the latter context, explicit analytic formulas are given for decay rates of mesons formed either by heavy quarks or by massless quarks.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures. Invited review for Modern Physics Letters

String splitting and strong coupling meson decay

We study the decay of high spin mesons using the gauge/string theory correspondence. The rate of the process is calculated by studying the splitting of a macroscopic string intersecting a D-brane. The result is applied to the decay of mesons in N=4 SYM with a small number of flavors and in a gravity dual of large N QCD. In QCD the decay of high spin mesons is found to be heavily suppressed in the regime of validity of the supergravity description.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures. V2: References added. V3: Minor correction

The energy and stability of D-term strings

Cosmic strings derived from string theory, supergravity or any theory of choice should be stable if we hope to observe them. In this paper we consider D-term strings in D=4, N=1 supergravity with a constant Fayet-Iliopoulos term. We show that the positive deficit angle supersymmetric D-term string is non-perturbatively stable by using standard Witten-Nester techniques to prove a positive energy theorem. Particular attention is paid to the negative deficit angle D-term string, which is known to violate the dominant energy condition. Within the class of string solutions we consider, this violation implies that the negative deficit angle D-term string must have a naked pathology and therefore the positive energy theorem we prove does not apply to it. As an interesting aside, we show that the Witten-Nester charge calculates the total gravitational energy of the D-term string without the need for a cut-off, which may not have been expected.Comment: 18 pages. v2: minor changes and references adde

Flavor brane on the baryonic branch of moduli space

We study an extra flavor in the cascading SU((k+1)M)xSU(k M) gauge theory by adding probe D7-brane to the geometry. By finding a solution to the kappa-symmetry equation we establish that the D7-brane is mutually supersymmetric with the background everywhere on the baryonic branch of moduli space. We also discuss possible applications of this result.Comment: 15 pages; v2 typo corrected, references adde

From ten to four and back again: how to generalize the geometry

We discuss the four-dimensional N=1 effective approach in the study of warped type II flux compactifications with SU(3)x SU(3)-structure to AdS_4 or flat Minkowski space-time. The non-trivial warping makes it natural to use a supergravity formulation invariant under local complexified Weyl transformations. We obtain the classical superpotential from a standard argument involving domain walls and generalized calibrations and show how the resulting F-flatness and D-flatness equations exactly reproduce the full ten-dimensional supersymmetry equations. Furthermore, we consider the effect of non-perturbative corrections to this superpotential arising from gaugino condensation or Euclidean D-brane instantons. For the latter we derive the supersymmetry conditions in N=1 flux vacua in full generality. We find that the non-perturbative corrections induce a quantum deformation of the internal generalized geometry. Smeared instantons allow to understand KKLT-like AdS vacua from a ten-dimensional point of view. On the other hand, non-smeared instantons in IIB warped Calabi-Yau compactifications 'destabilize' the Calabi-Yau complex structure into a genuine generalized complex one. This deformation gives a geometrical explanation of the non-trivial superpotential for mobile D3-branes induced by the non-perturbative corrections.Comment: LaTeX, 47 pages, v2, references, hyperref added, v3, correcting small inaccuracies in eqs. (2.6a) and (5.16

Deformations of calibrated D-branes in flux generalized complex manifolds

We study massless deformations of generalized calibrated cycles, which describe, in the language of generalized complex geometry, supersymmetric D-branes in N=1 supersymmetric compactifications with fluxes. We find that the deformations are classified by the first cohomology group of a Lie algebroid canonically associated to the generalized calibrated cycle, seen as a generalized complex submanifold with respect to the integrable generalized complex structure of the bulk. We provide examples in the SU(3) structure case and in a `genuine' generalized complex structure case. We discuss cases of lifting of massless modes due to world-volume fluxes, background fluxes and a generalized complex structure that changes type.Comment: 52 pages, added references, added comment on ellipticity in appendix B, made minor changes according to instructions referee JHE

Self-certified sybil-free pseudonyms

Accurate and trusted identifiers are a centerpiece for any security architecture. Protecting against Sybil attacks in a privacy-friendly manner is a non-trivial problem in wireless infrastructureless networks, such as mobile ad hoc networks. In this paper, we introduce self-certified Sybil-free pseudonyms as a means to provide privacy-friendly Sybil-freeness without requiring continuous online availability of a trusted third party. These pseudonyms are self-certified and computed by the users themselves from their cryptographic longterm identities. Contrary to identity certificates, we preserve location privacy and improve protection against some notorious attacks on anonymous communication systems