This article studies the geometry of moduli spaces of G²-manifolds, associative cycles, coassociative cycles and deformed Donaldson–Thomas bundles. We introduce natural symmetric cubic tensors and differential forms on these moduli spaces. They correspond to Yukawa couplings and correlation functions in M-theory.

We expect that the Yukawa coupling characterizes (co-)associative fibrations on these manifolds. We discuss the Fourier transformation along such fibrations and the analog of the Strominger–Yau–Zaslow mirror conjecture for G²-manifolds.

We also discuss similar structures and transformations for Spin(7)- manifolds.

In this paper, we shall describe some correlation function computations in perturbative heterotic strings that generalize B model computations. On the (2,2) locus, correlation functions in the B model receive no quantum corrections, but off the (2,2) locus, that can change. Classically, the (0,2) analogue of the B model is equivalent to the previously discussed (0,2) analogue of the A model, but with the gauge bundle dualized — our generalization of the A model also simultaneously generalizes the B model. The A and B analogues sometimes have different regularizations, however, which distinguish them quantum-mechanically. We discuss how properties of the (2,2) B model, such as the lack of quantum corrections, are realized in (0,2) A model language. In an appendix, we also extensively discuss how the Calabi–Yau condition for the closed string B model (uncoupled to topological gravity) can be weakened slightly, a detail which does not seem to have been covered in the literature previously. That weakening also manifests in the description of the (2,2) B model as a (0,2) A model.

It was suggested that light-cone superstring field theory (LCSFT) and matrix string theory (MST) are closely related. Especially the bosonic twist fields and the fermionic spin fields in MST correspond to the string interaction vertices in LCSFT. Since CFT operators are characterized by their OPEs, in our previous work we realized the most important OPE of the twist fields by computing contractions of the interaction vertices using the bosonic cousin of LCSFT. Here using the full LCSFT we generalize our previous work into the realization of OPEs for a vast class of operators.

We present a new conformal algebra. It is $\Bbb {Z}_2$ x $\Bbb {Z}_2$ graded and generated by three N = 1 superconformal algebras coupled to each other by nontrivial relations of parafermionic type. The representation theory and unitary models of the algebra are briefly discussed. We also conjecture the existence of infinite series of parafermionic algebras containing many N = 1 or N = 2 superconformal subalgebras.

We consider flux compactification of type IIB string theory as the orientifold limit of an F-theory on a Calabi–Yau 4-fold. We show that when supersymmetry is dominantly broken by the axion–dilaton and the contributions of the F-terms associated with complex structure moduli are small, the Hessian of the flux potential always has tachyonic modes for de Sitter vacua. This implies that there exist no meta-stable de Sitter vacua in this limit. Moreover, we find that the stability requirement imposes a relation between the values of cosmological constant and the scale of supersymmetry-breaking for non-supersymmetric anti-de Sitter vacua in this limit. The proof is general and does not rely on the details of the geometry of the compact Calabi–Yau internal space. We finally analyze the consequences of these constraints on the statistics of metastable de Sitter vacua and address some other related issues.

A free field representation of the gl(1|1)_k current algebra at arbitrary level k is given in terms of two scalar fields and a symplectic fermion. The primary fields for all representations are explicitly constructed using the twist and logarithmic fields in the symplectic fermion sector. A closed operator algebra is described at integer level k. Using a new super spincharge separation involving gl(1|1)_N and su(N)₀, we describe how the gl(1|1)_N current algebra can describe a non-trivial critical point of disordered Dirac fermions. Local gl(1|1) invariant lagrangians are defined which generalize the Liouville and sine-Gordon theories. We apply these new tools to the spin quantum Hall transition and show that it can be described as a logarithmic perturbation of the osp(2|2)_k current algebra at k = −2.