Originally presented as the author's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1970. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-99).

Dans ce travail nous nous intéressons à la géométrie de l’espace de Teichmüller via la longueur extrémale et à sa relation avec d’autres géométries. En effet, via le théorème d’uniformisation de Poincaré, l’espace de Teichmüller d’une surface orientable de type finie est un espace qui “classifie” aussi bien les structures hyperboliques de cette surface que les structures conformes. Suivant la classification utilisée, on obtient deux compactifications différentes de cet espace, qui sont respectivement la compactification de Thurston et la compactification de Gardiner-Masur. La première étant induite par la longueur hyperbolique et la deuxième par la longueur extrémale. Dans une première partie, on considère les compactifications dites “réduites” de Thurston et Gardiner-Masur. On montre qu’il existe une bijection naturelle entre les deux et que le groupe des auto-homéomorphismes du bord réduit de Thurston est canoniquement isomorphe au groupe modulaire étendu de la surface sous-jacente. Dans une deuxième partie, on étudie la convergence de certaines déformations de structures conformes aussi bien sur le bord de Thurston que sur celui de Gardiner-Masur. Ces déformations, appelées déformations horocycliques, sont un analogue des tremblements de terre de structures hyperboliques. Enfin, dans une troisième et dernière partie, on introduit une compactification à la Gardiner-Masur de l’espace de Teichmüller d’une surface à bord. On généralise des résultats obtenus dans le cas sans bord, et on établit quelques différences. / In this thesis we are interested in the extremal length geometry of Teichmüller space and the links with other geometries. In particular, we work on two different compactifications of Teichmüller space, namely, the Thurston compactification and the Gardiner-Masur compactification. In the first part, we consider the so-called reduced compactifications of Thurston and Gardiner-Masur. We show that there exists a canonical bijection between them and that the group of self-homeomorphisms of the reduced Thurston boundary is canonicaly isomorphic (except for a few cases) to the extended mapping class group of the corresponding surface. In the second part, we study the asymptotic behaviour of some conformal structure deformations to the Thuston boundary and to the Gardiner-Masur boundary. These deformations are called horocyclic deformations and they are analogous to earthquakes of hyperbolic structures. Finally, in the last part, using extremal length we extend the notion of Gardiner-Masur compactification to surfaces with non-empty boundary, and we investigate differences with the case without boundary.

In this dissertation we study several topics related to the geometry and physics of heterotic string compactification. After an introduction to some of the basic ideas of this field, we review the heterotic line bundle standard model construction and a complex structure mod- uli stabilization mechanism associated to certain hidden sector gauge bundles. Once this foundational material has been presented, we move on to the original research of this disser- tation. We present a scan over all known heterotic line bundle standard models to examine the frequency with which the particle spectrum is forced to change, or "jump," by the hidden sector moduli stabilization mechanism just mentioned. We find a significant percentage of forced spectrum jumping in those models where such a change of particle content is possible. This result suggests that one should consider moduli stabilization concurrently with model building, and that failing to do so could lead to misleading results. We also use state of the art techniques to study Yukawa couplings in these models. We find that a large portion of Yukawa couplings which naively would be expected to be non-zero actually vanish due to certain topological selection rules. There is no known symmetry which is responsible for this vanishing. In the final part of this dissertation, we study the Chern-Simons contribution to the superpotential of heterotic theories. This quantity is very important in determining the vacuum stability of these models. By explicitly building real bundle morphisms between vec- tor bundles over Calabi-Yau manifolds, we show that this contribution to the superpotential vanishes in many cases. However, by working with more complicated, and realistic geome- tries, we also present examples where the Chern-Simons contribution to the superpotential is non-zero, and indeed fractional. / Doctor of Philosophy / String theory is a candidate for a unified theory of all of the known interactions of nature. To be consistent, the theory needs to be formulated in 9 spatial dimensions, rather than the 3 of everyday experience. To connect string theory with reality, we need to reproduce the known physics of 3 dimensions from the 9 dimensional theory by hiding, or "compactifying," 6 directions on a compact internal space. The most common choice for such an internal space is called a Calabi-Yau manifold. In this dissertation, we study how the geometry of the Calabi-Yau manifold determines physical quantities seen in 3 dimensions such as the number of particle families, particle interactions and potential energy. The first project in this dissertation studies to what extent the process of making the Calabi-Yau manifold rigid, something which is required observationally, affects the particle spectrum seen in 3 dimensions. By scanning over a large model set, we conclude that computation of the particle spectrum and such "moduli stabilization" issues should be considered in concert, and not in isolation. We also showed that a large portion of the interactions that one would naively expect between the particles in such string models are actually absent. There is no known symmetry of the theory that accounts for this structure, which is linked to the topology of the extra spatial dimensions. In the final part of the dissertation, we show how to calculate previously unknown contributions to the potential energy of these string theory models. By linking to results from the mathematics literature, we show that these contributions vanish in many cases. However, we present examples where it is non-zero, a fact of crucial importance in understanding the vacua of heterotic string theories.

This thesis is devoted to a discussion of various aspects of supersymmetric quantum field theories in four and two dimensions. In four dimensions, 𝒩 = 1 supersymmetric quantum gauge theories on various four-manifolds are constructed. Many of their properties, some of which are distinct to the theories on flat spacetime, are analyzed. In two dimensions, general 𝒩 = (2, 2) nonlinear sigma models on S² are constructed, both for chiral multiplets and twisted chiral multiplets. The explicit curvature coupling terms and their effects are discussed. Finally, 𝒩 = (0, 2) gauged linear sigma models with nonabelian gauge groups are analyzed. In particular, various dualities between these nonabelian gauge theories are discussed in a geometric content, based on their Higgs branch structure. / Ph. D.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / In this thesis, we construct the ultrafilter space of a topological space using ultrafilters as points, study some of its properties and describe a method of generating compactifications through the ultrafilter space. As part of investigating some properties of the ultrafilter space, we show that the ultrafilter space forms a monad in the category of topological spaces. Furthermore, we show that rendering the ultrafilter space suitably separated results in a generation of separated compactifications which coincide with some well-known compactifications. When the ultrafilter space is rendered T0 or sober, the resulting compactifications is a stable Compactifications. Rendering the ultrafilter space T2 or Tychono results in the Stone_ Cechcompactification

In this thesis, we consider heterotic string vacua based on a warped product of a four-dimensional domain wall and a six-dimensional internal manifold preserving only two supercharges. Thus, they correspond to half-BPS states of heterotic supergravity. The constraints on the internal manifolds with $SU(3)$ structure are derived. They are found to be a generalization of half-flat manifolds with a particular pattern of torsion classes and they include half-flat manifolds and Strominger's complex non-Kahler manifolds as special cases. We also verify that heterotic compactifications on half-flat mirror manifolds are based on this class of solutions. Furthermore, within this context, we construct specific examples based on six-dimensional nearly-Kahler homogeneous manifolds and non-trivial vector bundles thereon. Our solutions are based on three specific group coset spaces satisfying the half-flat torsion class conditions. It is shown how to construct line bundles over these manifolds, compute their properties and build up vector bundles consistent with supersymmetry and the heterotic anomaly cancellation. It turns out that the most interesting solutions are obtained from SU(3)/U(1)². This space supports a large number of vector bundles leading to consistent heterotic vacua with GUT group and, for some of them, with three chiral families.

No description available.

In the present thesis, we offer an introduction to type IIB string compactifications on $\mathbb{T}^{d}/\Gamma$ toroidal orbifolds. We first describe the technical method to construct these spaces and reduce the string background on it. We will have (non)-geometrical fluxes arising from these spaces which decorate with discrete deformations our four $\mathcal{N}=1$ dimensional supergravity theory. Solving its equations of motion, we find several families of supersymmetric AdS vacua with fixed moduli, which can be related through a set of  $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ symmetries.

We define a moduli functor parametrizing finite maps from a projective (locally) Cohen-Macaulay curve to a fixed projective space. The definition of the functor includes a number of technical conditions, but the most important is that the map is almost everywhere an isomorphism onto its image. The motivation for this definition comes from trying to interpolate between the Hilbert scheme and the Kontsevich mapping space. The main result is that our functor is represented by a proper algebraic space. As applications we obtain a new proof of the existence of Macaulayfications for varieties, and secondly, interesting compactifications of the spaces of smooth curves in projective space. We illustrate this in the case of rational quartics, where the resulting space appears easier than the Hilbert scheme. / QC 20101022

<p>We define a moduli functor parametrizing finite maps from a projective (locally) Cohen-Macaulay curve to a fixed projective space. The definition of the functor includes a number of technical conditions, but the most important is that the map is almost everywhere an isomorphism onto its image. The motivation for this definition comes from trying to interpolate between the Hilbert scheme and the Kontsevich mapping space. The main result is that our functor is represented by a proper algebraic space. As applications we obtain a new proof of the existence of Macaulayfications for varieties, and secondly, interesting compactifications of the spaces of smooth curves in projective space. We illustrate this in the case of rational quartics, where the resulting space appears easier than the Hilbert scheme.</p>