1:30 pm MCP 201
Non-supersymmetric string dualities.
Perturbative strings describe only certain limits of quantum gravity. In the supersymmetric setting, dualities unify those limits into the broader M-/F-theory framework. Non-supersymmetric string theories have long stood outside this unifying picture. I will present evidence that the missing bridge is the quantum geometry S¹ ∨ S¹, realizing the Type 0A string. Natural variants of this idea realize the remaining non-supersymmetric strings, including bosonic strings, as well as give evidence for the existence of new ten-dimensional vacua. This suggests a non-supersymmetric completion of the M-/F-theoretic duality web.