10.7907/X29T-G794
Cook, Paul Langabi Hogan
Paul Langabi Hogan
Cook
California Institute of Technology
Aspects of Topological String Theory
California Institute of Technology
2008
Dissertation
2174
Physics
topological string theory
holomorphic anomaly equation
baby universes
English
Caltech Theory
2008-05-30
Final
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Two aspects of the topological string and its applications are considered in this thesis. Firstly, non-perturbative contributions to the OSV conjecture relating four-dimensional extremal black holes and the closed topological string partition function are studied. A new technique is formulated for encapsulating these contributions for the case of a Calabi-Yau manifold constructed by fibering two line bundle over a torus, with the unexpected property that the resulting non-perturbative completion of the topological string partition function is such that the black hole partition function is equal to a product of a chiral and an anti-chiral function. This new approach is considered both in the context of the requirement of background independence for the topological string, and for more general Calabi-Yau manifolds. Secondly, this thesis provides a microscopic derivation of the open topological string holomorphic anomaly equations proposed by Walcher in arXiv:0705.4098 under the assumption that open string moduli do not contribute. In doing so, however, new anomalies are found for compact Calabi-Yau manifolds when the disk one-point functions (string to boundary amplitudes) are non-zero. These new anomalies introduce coupling to wrong moduli (complex structure moduli in A-model and Kahler moduli in B-model), and spoil the recursive structure of the holomorphic anomaly equations. For vanishing disk one-point functions, the open string holomorphic anomaly equations can be integrated to solve for amplitudes recursively, using a Feynman diagram approach, for which a proof is presented.