This thesis considers two different aspects of string theory, the tensionless limit of the string and supersymmetric sigma models with extended supersymmetry. First, the tensionless limit is used to find a IIB supergravity background generated by a tensionless string. The background has the characteristics of a gravitational shock-wave. Then, the quantization of the tensionless string in a pp-wave background is performed and the result is found to agree with what is obtained by taking a tensionless limit directly in the quantized theory of the tensile string. Hence, in the pp-wave background the tensionless limit commutes with quantization. Next, supersymmetric sigma models and the relation between extended world-sheet supersymmetry and target space geometry is studied. The sigma model with N=(2,2) extended supersymmetry is considered and the requirement on the target space to have a bi-Hermitean geometry is reviewed. The Hamiltonian formulation of the model is constructed and the target space is shown to have generalized Kähler geometry. The equivalence between bi-Hermitean geometry and generalized Kähler follows, in this context, from the equivalence between the Lagrangian- and Hamiltonian formulation of the sigma model. Then, T-duality in the Hamiltonian formulation of the sigma model is studied and the explicit T-duality transformation is constructed. It is shown that the transformation is a symplectomorphism, i.e. a generalization of a canonical transformation. Under certain assumptions, the amount of extended supersymmetry present in the sigma model is shown to be preserved under the T-duality transformation. Next, extended supersymmetry in a first order formulation of the sigma model is studied. By requiring N=(2,2) extended world-sheet supersymmetry an intriguing geometrical structure arises and in a special case generalized complex geometry is found to be contained in the new framework.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-7783 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Persson, Jonas |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för teoretisk fysik, Uppsala : Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology, 1651-6214 ; 286 |
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