Superstring Perturbation Theory and Ramond-Ramond Backgrounds

Tadpoles accompany, in one form or another, all attempts to realize supersymmetry breaking in String Theory, making the present constructions at best incomplete. Whereas these tadpoles are typically large, a closer look at the problem from a perturbative viewpoint has the potential of illuminating at least some of its qualitative features in String Theory. A possible scheme to this effect was proposed long ago by Fischler and Susskind, but incorporating background redefinitio...

In a certain kinematic limit, where the effects of spacetime curvature (and other background fields) greatly simplify, the light-cone gauge world-sheet action for a type IIB superstring on AdS_5 x S^5 reduces to that of a free field theory. It has been conjectured by Berenstein, Maldacena, and Nastase that the energy spectrum of this string theory matches the dimensions of operators in the appropriately defined large R-charge large-N_c sector of N=4 supersymmetric Yang--Mills...

Motivated by a possibility of solving non-supersymmetric type 0 string theory in $AdS_5 \times S^5$ background using integrability, we revisit the construction of type 0 string spectrum in some solvable examples of backgrounds with RR fluxes that are common to type IIB and type 0B theories. The presence of RR fluxes requires the use of a Green-Schwarz description for type 0 string theory. Like in flat space, the spectrum of type 0 theory can be derived from the type II theory...

The pure spinor formalism for the superstring can be formulated as a twisted N=2 worldsheet theory with fermionic generators $j_{BRST}$ and composite $b$ ghost. After untwisting the formalism to an N=1 worldsheet theory with fermionic stress tensor $j_{BRST}+b$, the worldsheet variables combine into N=1 worldsheet superfields $X^m$ and $\Theta^\alpha$ together with a superfield constraint relating $DX^m$ and $D\Theta^\alpha$. The constraint implies that the worldsheet superpa...

We define string geometry: spaces of superstrings including the interactions, their topologies, charts, and metrics. Trajectories in asymptotic processes on a space of strings reproduce the right moduli space of the super Riemann surfaces in a target manifold. Based on the string geometry, we define Einstein-Hilbert action coupled with gauge fields, and formulate superstring theory non-perturbatively by summing over metrics and the gauge fields on the spaces of strings. This ...

We first present a short review of general supersymmetric compactifications in string and M-theory using the language of G-structures and intrinsic torsion. We then summarize recent work on the generic conditions for supersymmetric AdS_5 backgrounds in M-theory and the construction of classes of new solutions. Turning to AdS_5 compactifications in type IIB, we summarize the construction of an infinite class of new Sasaki-Einstein manifolds in dimension 2k+3 given a positive c...

We derive the part of the Lagrangian for the sigma model on the eta-deformed AdS_5 x S^5 space which is quadratic in fermions and has the full dependence on bosons. We then show that there exists a field redefinition which brings the corresponding Lagrangian to the standard form of type IIB Green-Schwarz superstring. Reading off the corresponding RR couplings, we observe that they fail to satisfy the supergravity equations of motion, despite the presence of kappa-symmetry. Ho...

We study D-instanton contributions to supergraviton scattering amplitudes in the ten-dimensional type IIB superstring theory beyond the leading non-perturbative order. In particular, we determine the one-D-instanton contribution to maximal R-symmetry violating (MRV) amplitudes with arbitrary momenta at the first subleading order in string coupling, as well as the effects of a D-/anti-D-instanton pair at leading nontrivial order in the momentum expansion. These results confirm...

We study the instanton effective action of four-dimensional deformed N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in the presence of constant, self-dual Ramond-Ramond (R-R) 3-form background in type IIB superstring theory. We compare the instanton effective action with the low-energy effective action on D(-1)-branes in the D3-D(-1) system in the same background. We find that discrepancy appears at the second order of the R-R background, which was also observed in deformed N=2 theory....

Type II supergravity admits an AdS(3) x S(2) x S(2) x T(3) solution with fluxes depending on several free parameters. We determine the constraints on these parameters imposed by the requirement of (classical) integrability of the superstring sigma model. To do this we analyze the low-energy effective action for the spinning GKP string. The absence of particle production in the tree-level S-matrix of bosonic excitations is shown to imply the vanishing of two of the four parame...