RESEARCH INTERESTS

 

 

My specialties are String Theory and Conformal Field Theory. My central contributions have been in the area of Perturbative String Theory, Strings in Background Fields and Dualities in String Theory.

 

Starting in 2011, I began work on Double Field Theory, an approach that aims to capture the T-duality properties of string theory in effective actions and establish  the  generalized  geometry underlying string theory . Together with G. Aldazabal, W. Baron and D. Marqués, we performed a generalized Scherk-Schwarz dimensional reduction of Double Field Theory on a twisted double torus and showed that the four dimensional effective action exactly reproduces the bosonic electric sector of gauged N= 4 supergravity. This work revealed a higher dimensional origin of the gaugings in terms of generalized fluxes. In collaboration with D. Geissbuhler, D. Marqués and V. Penas, we then considered a flux formulation of Double Field Theory, in which geometric and non-geometric fluxes are dynamical and field-dependent. Gauge consistency imposes a set of quadratic constraints on the dynamical fluxes, which can be solved by truly double configurations. The constraints are related to generalized Bianchi Identities for (non-)geometric fluxes in the double space, sourced by (exotic) branes.

 

Interested in Double Field Theory? See our recent review.