Research summary: Ashoke Sen

All scientific papers are based on the work of many others in the past. Mine are no ex-
ceptions. However in the summary of my research given below, I’ll not add references to the
many papers on which my work was based, even though I may mention some of the names.
The original references may be found in my papers, some of which I have listed at the end.

I have not attempted to cover everything that I have worked on. I also have not tried to
follow the chronological order in which the work was done. This would have been difficult
anyway since some of the topics were studied over many years, often with gaps of several years
in between. Instead I have attempted to group together related topics. Even though as a
graduated student I started by analyzing high energy behaviour of gauge theory scattering
amplitudes, the main theme of my research has been string theory – the theory that attempts
to give a unified description of all the constituents of matter and all the forces acting between
them, including gravity. I’ll first describe my work as a graduate student, then describe the
various aspects of string theory that I have worked on. I’ll end this summary by a somewhat
provocative topic involving the future of our universe.

1 Sudakov form factor in QCD

My work as a graduate student was on the high energy behaviour of scattering amplitudes in
gauge theories. In my first paper [1] I analyzed the three point amplitude a highly off-shell
photon and a pair of on-shell quarks in non-abelian gauge theories. Working at the leading
order in the power series expansion in inverse powers of the photon momentum, I gave a
systematic procedure for resumming all the logarithms of the photon momentum to all orders
in perturbation theory. These include the logs arising from the infrared, collinear and ultraviolet
regions of loop momentum integration. Later I extended the analysis to four point scattering
of quarks for large values of the Mandelstam invariants s, t and u [2].

2 String theory and conformal field theory

My first major project in string theory involved studying the relationship between the two
dimensional σ-models describing string propagation in a given background field, and the space-
time properties of these background fields. My main contribution during this project was to
establish the relation between classical equations of motion of massless fields in string theory
and conformal invariance of the two dimensional sigma model describing string propagation in
background of these massless fields [3, 4]. Later similar results were found by Callan, Friedan,
Martinec and Perry. Working along this line I also showed that in order to get a string compact-
ification that preserves N = 1 space-time supersymmetry, the corresponding two dimensional
σ-model should have (2,0) world-sheet supersymmetry [5, 6]. This provided a way of looking
for space-time supersymmetric vacua of string theory.

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3 Solution generating techniques

I developed a method for generating new classical solutions of string theory from a known
classical solution, when the original solution is independent of some of the space-time coordi-
nates [7–9]. Using string field theory I also argued that these solution generating transforma-
tions can be extended to the full classical effective action of string theory, going beyond the
leading two derivative approximation. Later, I used this method to generate the most general
electrically charged rotating black hole solution in four dimensional heterotic string theory [10]
and also a string solution carrying charge current that was used to give evidence for the pro-
posal of Hull and Townsend and Witten that type IIA string theory compactified on K3 is dual
to heterotic string theory compactified on T 6 [11].

4 Fayet-Iliopoulos term in string theory

In 1987, Dine, Seiberg and Witten used low energy effective field theory to argue that in some
four dimensional string theories with U(1) gauge symmetry one loop effects can generate a
Fayet-Iliopoulos D-term that can break supersymmetry. In collaboration with J. Atick and L.
Dixon I showed how the presence of such a D-term can be verified in an explicit one loop string
computation for any string compactification [12]. We also found that for most of the known
string theories, the generation of the D-term does not break supersymmetry, since one can find
a new supersymmetric vacuum in the space of field configurations. As described in §13, this
was later put on a firmer footing using the tools of string field theory.

5 Strong weak coupling duality

One of my main topics of research has been the subject of strong-weak coupling duality or S-
duality in string theory and quantum field theory. The original proposal for such a duality was
given by Montonen and Olive in the late 70’s, and it became clear through the work of Olive
and Witten, Osborn and of Font, Ibanez, Lust and Quevedo that the proposal takes a firmer
footing in N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory and heterotic string theory compactified
in T 6 which contains the former as its low energy limit. There were many evidences for this
e.g. the BPS mass formula, symmetry of the equations of motions etc. but there was a general
feeling in the community that these are simple consequences of supersymmetry and do not
give non-trivial evidence for the strong weak coupling duality. While this is true to some
extent, not everything follows from supersymmetry. In particular I argued that the existence of
this duality requires a precise relation between charge quantization laws in the theory and the
period of the θ-parameter that does not seem to follow from supersymmetry [13]. I summarized
these evidences in [14] where I also argued that the duality symmetry leads to some precise
prediction for the existence of certain dyonic states in the spectrum that were not known to
exist at that time. In [15] I explicitly verified some of these predictions which eventually made
the community take the idea of this duality more seriously. This also led to some precise

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mathematical conjectures on the existence of certain harmonic differential forms in the moduli
spaces of monopoles studied earlier by Atiyah and Hitchin. This was then developed and
extended by Seiberg and Witten, Vafa and Witten, Hull and Townsend and many others. I
also did further work on this subject, finding new examples of dualities in string theory.

6 F-theory and orientifold

In 1996 C. Vafa proposed a new way of compactifying type IIB string theory known as F -theory.
These compactifications are not accessible to the standard perturbative analysis, since the
coupling constant of the theory becomes large in some regions in the internal space. Nevertheless
based on various symmetry arguments Vafa argued that some of these compactifications are
dual to more conventional string compactifications. I showed [16] that at least for some of
these compactifications, one can take appropriate limits where they reduce to ordinary string
compactifications – known as orientifolds – that are amenable to perturbative techniques, and
the dualities proposed by Vafa can be understood in terms of more conventional dualities
proposed earlier. This method has been used later to find various other dualities involving
F -theory, and has also led to the discovery of new string compactifications in the search for
duals of F -theory compactification. Extending the method of this paper I later showed [17]
how one can take appropriate limit of a general F-theory compactification to map it into an
orientifold.

7 Black holes and elementary strings

String theory contains black hole solutions which carry the same quantum numbers as elemen-
tary string states. The most general class of such black hole solutions in toroidally compactified
heterotic string theory was constructed in [10]. Thus it is natural to ask if the degeneracy of
black hole states, as counted by the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy, agrees with the degeneracy
of elementary string states. If true, this will indicate that there is no distinction between the
black holes and elementary string states, and at the same time, this would provide a statistical
interpretation of Bekenstein-Hawking entropy from the counting of microscopic states. The
main obstacle to this calculation had been that the degeneracy of elementary string states is
calculable only in the weak coupling limit, whereas these states become black holes only for
sufficiently large coupling when the gravitational effects are appreciable. I circumvented this
problem by looking at the states which preserve part of the space-time supersymmetry (also
known as BPS states), since it is known that for such states the degeneracy remains unchanged
as we go from the strong to the weak coupling. Comparison of the black hole entropy according
to (a stringy modification of) the Bekenstein-Hawking prescription, and the logarithm of the
degeneracy of the elementary string states, showed an exact agreement between the two sides
as functions of three independent parameters, − the mass and charge of the black hole, and the
string coupling constant − up to an overall multiplicative numerical coefficient which could not
be calculated explicitly [18]. Later similar agreement was found by Strominger and Vafa and
many other authors in many other examples, where the numerical factor could be calculated.

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The missing numerical factor in my original analysis was calculated much later by Dabholkar,
and shown to agree with the degeneracies of elementary string states.

8 Precision counting of black hole microstates

N = 4 supersymmetric string theories typically contain a spectrum of dyon states which pre-
serve 1/4 of the supersymmetries of the original theory. In collaboration with Justin David and
Dileep Jatkar I computed the exact spectrum of dyons in a class of such string theories and
verified the duality invariance of the spectrum [19–23]. One surprising feature of our results is
that in all the theories, the generating function of the degeneracy / index is given by the inverse
of a Siegel modular form. For the specific case of heterotic string theory compactified on T 6 the
Siegel modular form is the Igusa cusp form, as conjectured by Dijkgraaf, Verlinde and Verlinde
several years earlier. These results were then compared to the contribution from higher deriva-
tive and quantum corrections to black hole entropy in a variety of string compactifications that
will be described in §9.

9 Stringy and quantum corrections to black hole entropy

The effective action of string theory contains correction to the Einstein-Hilbert action in the
form of higher derivative terms in the action. This corrects the black hole solution as well as the
black hole entropy. For the latter a general formula was written down by Wald. In 2005 I showed
that the analysis simplifies enormously for an extremal black hole. In particular in any theory of
gravity coupled to other matter fields with generally covariant higher derivative corrections, the
near horizon field configuration of an extremal black hole is obtained by extremizing an ‘entropy
function [24, 25]. The entropy function is a function of the parameters characterizing the near
horizon geometry of the black hole and there is a well defined algorithm for constructing this
function from the Lagrangian density of the theory. Furthermore the entropy itself is given
by the value of the entropy function at its extremum. This led to a proof of the ‘attractor
mechanism’ in a general higher derivative theory of gravity without invoking supersymmetry.
In particular the results show that in a generic situation where the entropy function has no
flat directions the near horizon field configuration is determined completely by extremizing the
entropy function and hence cannot depend on the asymptotic values of the scalar fields of the
theory. On the other hand if the entropy function has flat directions then the near horizon
field configuration is not completely determined by extremizing the entropy function and could
have some dependence on the asymptotic values of the scalar fields. But the entropy is still
independent of the asymptotic data. Although initial studies focussed on spherically symmetric
black holes, this analysis was later generalized to black holes carrying angular momentum
[26, 27].

As a continuation of this project I also proposed an exact formula – known as the quantum
entropy function – that computes the entropy of an extremal black hole after taking into
account both stringy corrections and quantum corrections to the black hole entropy [28, 29].

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This provides a way to compare the black hole entropy and the degeneracies computed in
the microscopic theory to an arbitrary accuracy. This procedure has been used to compute
logarithmic corrections to the black hole entropy in N=4 and N=8 supersymmetric string
theories [30–32], twisted index that computes the degeneracy weighted by (−1)F times some
discrete symmetry generator [33,34] and the sign of the index [35]. The results are in agreement
with the microscopic results. The computation of logarithmic corrections was also generalized
to non-extremal black holes [36].

10 Multi-centered black holes and quivers

In supergravity, which is the low energy limit of string theory, we have both single centered
and multi-centered black hole solutions. The latter become particularly important for extremal
black holes for which the multi-centered black holes can be stable, and contribute to the entropy
for a fixed total charge besides the single centered black holes carrying the same charge. It turns
out however that as we change the moduli of string compactification, given by the asymptotic
values of massless scalars, some of these multi-centered configurations may cease to exist and
/ or new multi-centered configurations may appear. Therefore the black hole index may jump
across codimension one subspaces of the moduli space known as walls of marginal stability.
In [37] I classified these walls of marginal stability for a wide class of N = 4 supersymmetric
string compactification. I also showed that even though the index jumps across the walls of
marginal stability, the partition function (generating function of the index) remains unchanged.
The same generating function, expanded in different ways, gives the result for the index in
different regions of the moduli space. The jumps across the walls, known as the wall crossing
formula, are determined by the residues at certain poles of the generating function. I also
derived a general form of the wall crossing formula in N = 4 supersymmetric theories in [38].

The structure of wall crossing in N = 2 supersymmetric string compactification is much

more complex. The jumps across the walls was analyzed by Denef and Moore, Kontsevich
and Soibelman, Joyce and Song and many others, leading to the wall crossing formula. In
[39] with Manschot and Pioline I derived two new versions of the wall crossing formula by
analyzing the properties of black hole bound states. These were later shown to agree with
each other and with the earlier results of Kontsevich and Soibelman and of Joyce and Song
[40]. Later we used these ideas to write down the degeneracies of multi-centered black hole
configurations in terms of single centered degeneracies [41] and applied it to derive some results
in quiver quantum mechanics [42, 43]. The importance of this work stems from the fact that
the microscopic counting of the type described in §8 typically gives the full degeneracy / index
without distinguishing between single and multi-centered black holes while the macroscopic
analysis based on the quantum entropy function, as described in §9, focuses on the contribution
from single centered black holes. Therefore in order to compare the results we need the relation
between single and multi-centered black holes.

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11 String field theory

The usual formulation of string theory uses a first quantized description, also known as the
world-sheet approach. While capable of computing S-matrix elements in a given background,
this approach is not very useful for describing a change in the background. A second quantized
approach to string theory was proposed by Witten, Zwiebach and others that give a more
conventional quantum field theory like formulation of string theory with infinite number of fields.
The background independence of the theory however was not manifest. In several papers, some
of them in collaboration with Barton Zwiebach, I proved background independence of string
field theory for backgrounds that are related by marginal deformation [44–46].

I returned to the subject of string field theory in the context of tachyon condensation, and
superstring perturbation theory, described in §12 and §13 respectively, and again much later
for the formulation of superstring field theory. Actually my work on superstring field theory
started in the mid 90’s in a paper with Saroja where we showed how in principle one could write
down a consistent field theory for the NSNS sector of superstring theory by making the picture
changing operators move as we vary the moduli of the Riemann surface [47]. It was however
not fully clear if we can consistently avoid collision of picture changing operators / spurious
poles, thereby avoiding possible singularities. I returned to this problem in 2014 and resolved
this issue using the notion of vertical integration [48]. A fully systematic procedure for carrying
out vertical integration was given later in a paper with Witten [49]. This was needed not just
for the formulation of string field theory, but also for a systematic description of superstring
perturbation theory.

While this resolved the problem of constructing string field theory action in the NSNS
sector, a full string field theory must also include the NSR, RNS and RR sectors. This had
been a stumbling block in the formulation of superstring field theory and the absence of an
action for type IIB supergravity, which arises as the low energy limit of type IIB string theory,
was a clear signal that one cannot have a conventional action. I resolved this problem by
introducing an extra set of string fields in the theory. Even though it seems to double the
number of degrees of freedom, one finds that one set of fields decouple in the final theory, and
the remaining interacting degrees of freedom precisely produce the perturbative amplitudes
[50, 51] of superstring theory. Later I used this formalism to write down an action for type IIB
supergravity and other theories with chiral bosons [51]. Using the framework of string field
theory I, in various collaborations, also discussed the construction of the Wilsonian effective
action by integrating out the heavy modes [52], proof of unitarity of string theory [53] and proof
of crossing symmetry of four point amplitudes [54].

12 Non-BPS states and tachyon condensation in string theory

Another of my projects involves study of non-supersymmetric solitons in string theory. Most

of the earlier studies on solitons in string theory have been on supersymmetric (also known
as BPS) configurations. In a series of papers in 1998 I showed that many string theories have

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stable non-BPS states and that they can also be used to test various duality conjectures [55–57].

During this study, I also found a novel construction of non-BPS states in terms of kink
solution involving the tachyon field on a brane anti-brane pair. Tachyons have been known to
be present in bosonic string theory almost since its birth but are absent in superstring theory.
Nevertheless if we consider a system of coincident D-brane and anti D-brane in superstring
theory, the spectrum of open strings contain a tachyonic mode indicating that we have a scalar
field for which the potential has a maximum at the origin of the field space. An interesting
question that had remained unanswered was ‘what describes the minimum of the tachyon
potential?’ The study of non-BPS branes led to a series of conjectures about tachyon potential
on the brane-antibrane system and non-BPS D-branes in superstring theory, as well as on D-
branes of bosonic string theory [56, 58–61]. Later, in various collaborations with Zwiebach,
Berkovits, and Moeller I found evidence for these conjectures in string field theory [62–65].
The analytic solution describing the tachyon vacuum in open bosonic string field theory was
constructed by Schnabl a few years later who verified the conjecture on the energy density of
the tachyon vacuum. Many of the other conjectures have also been analytically proven by now.

Although initial studies of the non-BPS branes focussed on their static properties, in 2002 I
found a set of time dependent solutions describing the ‘decay’ of these branes [66,67]. These are
among the few time dependent solutions in string theory whose properties have been studied in
detail and have been used extensively to build cosmological models out of string theory. Study
of these solutions has also led to a new kind of duality conjecture between open and closed
string theories [68].

13 Superstring perturbation theory

The original formulation of superstring perturbation theory was based on the world-sheet formu-
lation that expresses the scattering amplitudes as integrals over the moduli spaces of Riemann
surfaces. However these integrals often run into divergences from the boundaries of the moduli
space where the Riemann surface degenerates. Usually one can deal with these divergences by
analytic continuation in the momenta of the external particles – we define the amplitude for
the range of momenta where the integrals are finite and then analytically continue the result
to other values of the momenta. However this procedure does not always work. By expressing
the amplitudes in terms of Feynman diagrams of string field theory one finds that these failures
occur precisely when one of more internal propagators in a Feynman diagram is forced to be
on-shell due to momentum conservation rules. This is the case for example when we have self
energy diagrams on external legs of a Feynman diagram or tadpoles of massless fields. Since in
quantum field theory we know precisely how to address these problems – e.g. by mass renor-
malization in the first case and by finding the correct vacuum in the second case – we can use
string field theory to resolve these divergences. We discussed these in a series of papers with
Pius and Rudra [52, 69, 70]. In [71] I used the technique of string field theory to reanalyze
and extend the analysis described in §4 by showing how the broken supersymmetry generated
by the one loop Fayet-Iliopoulos term is restored by shift of the string field. In the broken
supersymmetric ‘vacuum’ we have a non-zero cosmological constant but this becomes zero in

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the supersymmetric vacuum. I also used the notion of vertical integration, mentioned in §11
to give a fully systematic description of superstring amplitudes avoiding spurious poles which
otherwise plague the usual formulation of the world-sheet theory [48, 49].

14 D-instanton amplitudes

D-instantons describe classical finite action solutions in euclidean string theory and could give
non-perturbative contribution to the scattering amplitudes in string theory. In principle D-
instanton contribution to string amplitudes can be computed systematically by summing over
world-sheets with boundaries, with D-instanton boundary condition at the boundaries. However
the resulting integrals over the moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces often run into divergences
from the boundary of the moduli space. Again using the language of string field theory one
finds that these divergences can be traced to the presence of internal on-shell open string
propagators in the Feynman diagram, with the boundaries of the open string lying on the
D-instanton. However in this case the problem is more severe since the open strings on the
D-instanton are forced to carry zero momentum along the non-compact directions and hence
no analytic continuation is possible.

One again finds that using the language of string field theory one can resolve these problems.
The main idea is to remove the open string zero mode contributions from the internal propa-
gators of the Feynman diagram and integrate over the zero modes separately at the end. This
procedure successfully resolved various open problems that were present in the earlier analysis,
e.g. in the work of Green and Gutperle in ten dimensional type IIB string theory and in the
work of Balthazar, Rodrigues and Yin in two dimensional bosonic string theory. We applied
this procedure to analyze D-instanton contribution to string amplitudes in two dimensional
bosonic string theory [72–75], ten dimensional type IIB superstring theory [76, 77] and type II
string theories compactified on Calabi-Yau threefolds [78, 79].

15 Soft theorem

Leading soft photon and soft graviton theorem, discovered by Weinberg in the mid 1960’s,
express an amplitude with one or more low momentum (soft) graviton or photon in terms of
an amplitude without such soft particles. Interest in the soft theorem was revived recently due
to the work of Strominger and others on the connection between soft theorems, asymptotic
symmetries and memory effect, and also due to the discovery by Cachazo and Strominger of
subleading soft theorem for scattering of massless particles. In various collaborations I gave
a general proof of the subsubleading soft graviton theorem in any generally covariant quan-
tum theory of gravity [80–82]. Later with Alok Laddha I showed how by taking appropriate
classical limit of the soft theorem, one can derive the form of low frequency classical gravita-
tional radiation in a classical scattering process purely in terms of the incoming and outgoing
hard particle momenta. This analysis is straightforward in dimensions five or more, but has
interesting logarithmic corrections in four dimensions that produce a late and early time tail

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of the gravitational radiation [83, 84]. A classical proof of this was given later [85] and some
interesting properties of this formula were explored in [86].

16 Doublet-Triplet splitting in string inspired GUTS

In conventional SU(5) grand unified theories, the Higgs field belongs to a fundamental repre-
sentation of SU(5) and it requires a high degree of fine tuning (1 in 1015 ) to keep its color triplet
component heavy (which is required to avoid rapid proton decay) and at the same time the
weak doublet Higgs light (so that it can induce symmetry breaking responsible for the mass of
the W ± and Z bosons). In a paper in 1985 [87] I showed how in string theory one might be
able to get this mass hierarchy naturally, without the need of any fine tuning.

17 Stringy corrections to the Calabi-Yau metric

In 1986, several groups found a new four loop contribution to the β-function in the σ-model
describing string propagation on a Calabi-Yau manifold. This led to the possibility that Calabi-
Yau manifolds are not valid backgrounds for string compactification as these would not be
solutions of the equations of motion. In collaboration with D. Nemeschansky I showed that it is
possible to modify the metric on the Calabi-Yau manifold order by order in string perturbation
theory so that it continues to remain solutions of the equations of motion, and hence provides
a conformally invariant σ-model [88].

18 Classification of rational conformal field theories

In collaboration with Samir Mathur and Sunil Mukhi, I proposed a way to classify rational
conformal field theories by using modular properties of their characters [89]. If the theory has
n characters then modular transformations acts as an n × n matrix on these characters. This in
turn implies that there is a modular covariant n-th order ordinary differential equation whose
solutions give the characters. For a given value of n, one can start with a general form on the
modular differential equation parametrized by some unknown constants and then determine
those constants by requiring the solutions to the differential equation properties satisfied by
characters e.g. integrality of the Fourier expansion coefficients.

19 Matrix theory

In 1996, Banks, Fischler, Shenker and Susskind proposed a non-perturbative definition of eleven
dimensional supergravity theory in terms of quantum mechanics of infinite dimensional matri-
ces. I gave a systematic description of this theory when we compactify some of the eleven

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dimensions [90]. This unified many of the ad hoc descriptions of this theory given earlier.

20 Interpolating function

In string theory and quantum field theories, most expansions are asymptotic. However many
string compactifications and quantum field theories have the property that at strong coupling
it admits a dual weakly coupled description, thereby admitting a perturbation expansion in
inverse powers of the coupling. In [?] I described a general procedure for combining the strong
and weak coupling expansion to get an interpolating function. In special cases where the exact
result is known, this function gives a better approximation to the exact result than either of
the two expansions.

21 The future of our universe

Discovery of the accelerated expansion of the universe in the late 90’s has changed our under-
standing of the future of our universe. We now know that in the far future the universe is going
to divide itself into multiple regions which will not be able to communicate with each other
even though today we can reach those regions if we try hard enough. Another aspect of our
universe is the possibility that we may be living in a metastable vacuum that could decay into
a different vacuum by formation of a tiny bubble which would expand at the speed of light and
wipe out the whole observable universe. In an essay [92] I suggested that we could in principle
increase the chances of survival of our civilization by spreading out in different regions of the
universe that are reachable today, but will be out of each others’ reach in the far future. In
that case if in the future a bubble of more stable vacuum forms in one region, it can wipe out
everything that is within its reach, but civilizations settled in other parts of the universe that
are out of reach will survive. Detailed calculation of how efficient this process is was performed
in a follow up paper with Kashyap, Mondal and Verma [93] where we also calculated how the
half-life of our universe changes with time due to the expansion of the universe.

References
[1] A. Sen, “Asymptotic Behavior of the Sudakov Form-Factor in QCD,” Phys. Rev. D 24
(1981), 3281 doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.24.3281

[2] A. Sen, “Asymptotic Behavior of the Wide Angle On-Shell Quark Scattering Amplitudes in
Nonabelian Gauge Theories,” Phys. Rev. D 28 (1983), 860 doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.28.860

[3] A. Sen, “The Heterotic String in Arbitrary Background Field,” Phys. Rev. D 32 (1985),
2102 doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.32.2102

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 [4] A. Sen, “Equations of Motion for the Heterotic String Theory from the Con-
formal Invariance of the Sigma Model,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 55 (1985), 1846
doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.55.1846

[5] A. Sen, “(2, 0) Supersymmetry and Space-Time Supersymmetry in the Heterotic String
Theory,” Nucl. Phys. B 278 (1986), 289-308 doi:10.1016/0550-3213(86)90214-2

[6] A. Sen, “Heterotic String Theory on Calabi-Yau Manifolds in the Green-schwarz Formal-
ism,” Nucl. Phys. B 284 (1987), 423-448 doi:10.1016/0550-3213(87)90043-5

[7] A. Sen, “O(d) x O(d) symmetry of the space of cosmological solutions in string theory,
scale factor duality and two-dimensional black holes,” Phys. Lett. B 271 (1991), 295-300
doi:10.1016/0370-2693(91)90090-D

[8] A. Sen, “Twisted black p-brane solutions in string theory,” Phys. Lett. B 274 (1992),
34-40 doi:10.1016/0370-2693(92)90300-S [arXiv:hep-th/9108011 [hep-th]].

[9] S. F. Hassan and A. Sen, “Twisting classical solutions in heterotic string theory,” Nucl.
Phys. B 375 (1992), 103-118 doi:10.1016/0550-3213(92)90336-A [arXiv:hep-th/9109038
[hep-th]].

[10] A. Sen, “Black hole solutions in heterotic string theory on a torus,” Nucl. Phys. B 440
(1995), 421-440 doi:10.1016/0550-3213(95)00063-X [arXiv:hep-th/9411187 [hep-th]].

[11] A. Sen, “String string duality conjecture in six-dimensions and charged solitonic
strings,” Nucl. Phys. B 450 (1995), 103-114 doi:10.1016/0550-3213(95)00320-R [arXiv:hep-
th/9504027 [hep-th]].

[12] J. J. Atick, L. J. Dixon and A. Sen, “String Calculation of Fayet-Iliopoulos d Terms

in Arbitrary Supersymmetric Compactifications,” Nucl. Phys. B 292 (1987), 109-149
doi:10.1016/0550-3213(87)90639-0

[13] A. Sen, “Quantization of dyon charge and electric magnetic duality in string theory,”
Phys. Lett. B 303 (1993), 22-26 doi:10.1016/0370-2693(93)90037-I [arXiv:hep-th/9209016
[hep-th]].

[14] A. Sen, “Strong - weak coupling duality in four-dimensional string theory,” Int. J. Mod.
Phys. A 9 (1994), 3707-3750 doi:10.1142/S0217751X94001497 [arXiv:hep-th/9402002 [hep-
th]].

[15] A. Sen, “Dyon - monopole bound states, selfdual harmonic forms on the multi - monopole
moduli space, and SL(2,Z) invariance in string theory,” Phys. Lett. B 329 (1994), 217-221
doi:10.1016/0370-2693(94)90763-3 [arXiv:hep-th/9402032 [hep-th]].

[16] A. Sen, “F theory and orientifolds,” Nucl. Phys. B 475 (1996), 562-578 doi:10.1016/0550-
3213(96)00347-1 [arXiv:hep-th/9605150 [hep-th]].

[17] A. Sen, “Orientifold limit of F theory vacua,” Phys. Rev. D 55 (1997), R7345-R7349
doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.55.R7345 [arXiv:hep-th/9702165 [hep-th]].

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[18] A. Sen, “Extremal black holes and elementary string states,” Mod. Phys. Lett. A 10 (1995),
2081-2094 doi:10.1142/S0217732395002234 [arXiv:hep-th/9504147 [hep-th]].
[19] D. P. Jatkar and A. Sen, “Dyon spectrum in CHL models,” JHEP 04 (2006), 018
doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2006/04/018 [arXiv:hep-th/0510147 [hep-th]].
[20] J. R. David, D. P. Jatkar and A. Sen, “Product representation of Dyon partition function
in CHL models,” JHEP 06 (2006), 064 doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2006/06/064 [arXiv:hep-
th/0602254 [hep-th]].
[21] J. R. David and A. Sen, “CHL Dyons and Statistical Entropy Function from D1-D5 Sys-
tem,” JHEP 11 (2006), 072 doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2006/11/072 [arXiv:hep-th/0605210
[hep-th]].
[22] J. R. David, D. P. Jatkar and A. Sen, “Dyon Spectrum in N=4 Supersymmetric Type II
String Theories,” JHEP 11 (2006), 073 doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2006/11/073 [arXiv:hep-
th/0607155 [hep-th]].
[23] J. R. David, D. P. Jatkar and A. Sen, “Dyon spectrum in generic N=4 supersymmetric
Z(N) orbifolds,” JHEP 01 (2007), 016 doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2007/01/016 [arXiv:hep-
th/0609109 [hep-th]].
[24] A. Sen, “Black hole entropy function and the attractor mechanism in higher derivative
gravity,” JHEP 09 (2005), 038 doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2005/09/038 [arXiv:hep-th/0506177
[hep-th]].
[25] A. Sen, “Entropy function for heterotic black holes,” JHEP 03 (2006), 008
doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2006/03/008 [arXiv:hep-th/0508042 [hep-th]].
[26] B. Sahoo and A. Sen, “BTZ black hole with Chern-Simons and higher derivative terms,”
JHEP 07 (2006), 008 doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2006/07/008 [arXiv:hep-th/0601228 [hep-
th]].
[27] D. Astefanesei, K. Goldstein, R. P. Jena, A. Sen and S. P. Trivedi, “Rotating attrac-
tors,” JHEP 10 (2006), 058 doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2006/10/058 [arXiv:hep-th/0606244
[hep-th]].
[28] A. Sen, “Entropy Function and AdS(2) / CFT(1) Correspondence,” JHEP 11 (2008), 075
doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2008/11/075 [arXiv:0805.0095 [hep-th]].
[29] A. Sen, “Quantum Entropy Function from AdS(2)/CFT(1) Correspondence,” Int. J. Mod.
Phys. A 24 (2009), 4225-4244 doi:10.1142/S0217751X09045893 [arXiv:0809.3304 [hep-th]].
[30] S. Banerjee, R. K. Gupta and A. Sen, “Logarithmic Corrections to Extremal
Black Hole Entropy from Quantum Entropy Function,” JHEP 03 (2011), 147
doi:10.1007/JHEP03(2011)147 [arXiv:1005.3044 [hep-th]].
[31] S. Banerjee, R. K. Gupta, I. Mandal and A. Sen, “Logarithmic Corrections to N=4 and
N=8 Black Hole Entropy: A One Loop Test of Quantum Gravity,” JHEP 11 (2011), 143
doi:10.1007/JHEP11(2011)143 [arXiv:1106.0080 [hep-th]].

12
[32] A. Sen, “Logarithmic Corrections to N=2 Black Hole Entropy: An Infrared Window into
the Microstates,” Gen. Rel. Grav. 44 (2012) no.5, 1207-1266 doi:10.1007/s10714-012-1336-
5 [arXiv:1108.3842 [hep-th]].

[33] A. Sen, “A Twist in the Dyon Partition Function,” JHEP 05 (2010), 028
doi:10.1007/JHEP05(2010)028 [arXiv:0911.1563 [hep-th]].

[34] A. Sen, “Discrete Information from CHL Black Holes,” JHEP 11 (2010), 138
doi:10.1007/JHEP11(2010)138 [arXiv:1002.3857 [hep-th]].

[35] A. Sen, “How Do Black Holes Predict the Sign of the Fourier Coefficients of Siegel
Modular Forms?,” Gen. Rel. Grav. 43 (2011), 2171-2183 doi:10.1007/s10714-011-1175-9
[arXiv:1008.4209 [hep-th]].

[36] A. Sen, “Logarithmic Corrections to Schwarzschild and Other Non-extremal Black Hole
Entropy in Different Dimensions,” JHEP 04 (2013), 156 doi:10.1007/JHEP04(2013)156
[arXiv:1205.0971 [hep-th]].

[37] A. Sen, “Walls of Marginal Stability and Dyon Spectrum in N=4 Supersymmetric
String Theories,” JHEP 05 (2007), 039 doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2007/05/039 [arXiv:hep-
th/0702141 [hep-th]].

[38] A. Sen, “Wall Crossing Formula for N=4 Dyons: A Macroscopic Derivation,” JHEP 07
(2008), 078 doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2008/07/078 [arXiv:0803.3857 [hep-th]].

[39] J. Manschot, B. Pioline and A. Sen, “Wall Crossing from Boltzmann Black Hole Halos,”
JHEP 07 (2011), 059 doi:10.1007/JHEP07(2011)059 [arXiv:1011.1258 [hep-th]].

[40] A. Sen, “Equivalence of three wall-crossing formulae,” Commun. Num. Theor. Phys. 6
(2012), 601-659 doi:10.4310/CNTP.2012.v6.n3.a2 [arXiv:1112.2515 [hep-th]].

[41] J. Manschot, B. Pioline and A. Sen, “A Fixed point formula for the index of multi-centered
N=2 black holes,” JHEP 05 (2011), 057 doi:10.1007/JHEP05(2011)057 [arXiv:1103.1887
[hep-th]].

[42] J. Manschot, B. Pioline and A. Sen, “From Black Holes to Quivers,” JHEP 11 (2012), 023
doi:10.1007/JHEP11(2012)023 [arXiv:1207.2230 [hep-th]].

[43] J. Manschot, B. Pioline and A. Sen, “On the Coulomb and Higgs branch for-
mulae for multi-centered black holes and quiver invariants,” JHEP 05 (2013), 166
doi:10.1007/JHEP05(2013)166 [arXiv:1302.5498 [hep-th]].

[44] A. Sen, “On the Background Independence of String Field Theory,” Nucl. Phys. B 345
(1990), 551-583 doi:10.1016/0550-3213(90)90400-8

[45] A. Sen and B. Zwiebach, “A Proof of local background independence of classical closed
string field theory,” Nucl. Phys. B 414 (1994), 649-714 doi:10.1016/0550-3213(94)90258-5
[arXiv:hep-th/9307088 [hep-th]].

13
[46] A. Sen and B. Zwiebach, “Quantum background independence of closed string field the-
ory,” Nucl. Phys. B 423 (1994), 580-630 doi:10.1016/0550-3213(94)90145-7 [arXiv:hep-
th/9311009 [hep-th]].

[47] R. Saroja and A. Sen, “Picture changing operators in closed fermionic string field the-
ory,” Phys. Lett. B 286 (1992), 256-264 doi:10.1016/0370-2693(92)91772-2 [arXiv:hep-
th/9202087 [hep-th]].

[48] A. Sen, “Off-shell Amplitudes in Superstring Theory,” Fortsch. Phys. 63 (2015), 149-188
doi:10.1002/prop.201500002 [arXiv:1408.0571 [hep-th]].

[49] A. Sen and E. Witten, “Filling the gaps with PCO’s,” JHEP 09 (2015), 004
doi:10.1007/JHEP09(2015)004 [arXiv:1504.00609 [hep-th]].

[50] A. Sen, “Gauge Invariant 1PI Effective Superstring Field Theory: Inclusion of the Ramond
Sector,” JHEP 08 (2015), 025 doi:10.1007/JHEP08(2015)025 [arXiv:1501.00988 [hep-th]].

[51] A. Sen, “BV Master Action for Heterotic and Type II String Field Theories,” JHEP 02
(2016), 087 doi:10.1007/JHEP02(2016)087 [arXiv:1508.05387 [hep-th]].

[52] R. Pius, A. Rudra and A. Sen, “String Perturbation Theory Around Dynamically Shifted
Vacuum,” JHEP 10 (2014), 070 doi:10.1007/JHEP10(2014)070 [arXiv:1404.6254 [hep-th]].

[53] R. Pius and A. Sen, “Cutkosky rules for superstring field theory,” JHEP 10 (2016), 024
[erratum: JHEP 09 (2018), 122] doi:10.1007/JHEP10(2016)024 [arXiv:1604.01783 [hep-
th]].

[54] C. De Lacroix, H. Erbin and A. Sen, “Analyticity and Crossing Symmetry of Superstring
Loop Amplitudes,” JHEP 05 (2019), 139 doi:10.1007/JHEP05(2019)139 [arXiv:1810.07197
[hep-th]].

[55] A. Sen, “Stable nonBPS states in string theory,” JHEP 06 (1998), 007 doi:10.1088/1126-
6708/1998/06/007 [arXiv:hep-th/9803194 [hep-th]].

[56] A. Sen, “SO(32) spinors of type I and other solitons on brane - anti-brane pair,” JHEP 09
(1998), 023 doi:10.1088/1126-6708/1998/09/023 [arXiv:hep-th/9808141 [hep-th]].

[57] A. Sen, “Type I D particle and its interactions,” JHEP 10 (1998), 021 doi:10.1088/1126-
6708/1998/10/021 [arXiv:hep-th/9809111 [hep-th]].

[58] A. Sen, “Stable nonBPS bound states of BPS D-branes,” JHEP 08 (1998), 010
doi:10.1088/1126-6708/1998/08/010 [arXiv:hep-th/9805019 [hep-th]].

[59] A. Sen, “Tachyon condensation on the brane anti-brane system,” JHEP 08 (1998), 012
doi:10.1088/1126-6708/1998/08/012 [arXiv:hep-th/9805170 [hep-th]].

[60] A. Sen, “BPS D-branes on nonsupersymmetric cycles,” JHEP 12 (1998), 021

doi:10.1088/1126-6708/1998/12/021 [arXiv:hep-th/9812031 [hep-th]].

14
[61] A. Sen, “Supersymmetric world volume action for nonBPS D-branes,” JHEP 10 (1999),
008 doi:10.1088/1126-6708/1999/10/008 [arXiv:hep-th/9909062 [hep-th]].

[62] A. Sen, “Universality of the tachyon potential,” JHEP 12 (1999), 027 doi:10.1088/1126-
6708/1999/12/027 [arXiv:hep-th/9911116 [hep-th]].

[63] A. Sen and B. Zwiebach, “Tachyon condensation in string field theory,” JHEP 03 (2000),
002 doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2000/03/002 [arXiv:hep-th/9912249 [hep-th]].

[64] N. Berkovits, A. Sen and B. Zwiebach, “Tachyon condensation in superstring field the-
ory,” Nucl. Phys. B 587 (2000), 147-178 doi:10.1016/S0550-3213(00)00501-0 [arXiv:hep-
th/0002211 [hep-th]].

[65] N. Moeller, A. Sen and B. Zwiebach, “D-branes as tachyon lumps in string field the-
ory,” JHEP 08 (2000), 039 doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2000/08/039 [arXiv:hep-th/0005036
[hep-th]].

[66] A. Sen, “Rolling tachyon,” JHEP 04 (2002), 048 doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2002/04/048

[arXiv:hep-th/0203211 [hep-th]].

[67] A. Sen, “Tachyon matter,” JHEP 07 (2002), 065 doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2002/07/065

[arXiv:hep-th/0203265 [hep-th]].

[68] A. Sen, “Tachyon dynamics in open string theory,” Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 20 (2005), 5513-
5656 doi:10.1142/S0217751X0502519X [arXiv:hep-th/0410103 [hep-th]].

[69] R. Pius, A. Rudra and A. Sen, “Mass Renormalization in String Theory: Special States,”
JHEP 07 (2014), 058 doi:10.1007/JHEP07(2014)058 [arXiv:1311.1257 [hep-th]].

[70] R. Pius, A. Rudra and A. Sen, “Mass Renormalization in String Theory: General States,”
JHEP 07 (2014), 062 doi:10.1007/JHEP07(2014)062 [arXiv:1401.7014 [hep-th]].

[71] A. Sen, “Supersymmetry Restoration in Superstring Perturbation Theory,” JHEP 12

(2015), 075 doi:10.1007/JHEP12(2015)075 [arXiv:1508.02481 [hep-th]].

[72] A. Sen, “Fixing an Ambiguity in Two Dimensional String Theory Using String Field
Theory,” JHEP 03 (2020), 005 doi:10.1007/JHEP03(2020)005 [arXiv:1908.02782 [hep-th]].

[73] A. Sen, “Divergent =⇒ complex amplitudes in two dimensional string theory,” JHEP 02
(2021), 086 doi:10.1007/JHEP02(2021)086 [arXiv:2003.12076 [hep-th]].

[74] A. Sen, “D-instantons, String Field Theory and Two Dimensional String Theory,”
[arXiv:2012.11624 [hep-th]].

[75] A. Sen, “Normalization of D-instanton Amplitudes,” [arXiv:2101.08566 [hep-th]].

[76] A. Sen, “Normalization of Type IIB D-instanton Amplitudes,” [arXiv:2104.11109 [hep-th]].

[77] A. Sen, “Muti-instanton Amplitudes in Type IIB String Theory,” [arXiv:2104.15110 [hep-
th]].

15
[78] S. Alexandrov, A. Sen and B. Stefański, “D-instantons in Type IIA string theory on
Calabi-Yau threefolds,” [arXiv:2108.04265 [hep-th]].

[79] S. Alexandrov, A. Sen and B. Stefański, “Euclidean D-branes in Type IIB string theory
on Calabi-Yau threefolds,” [arXiv:2110.06949 [hep-th]].

[80] A. Sen, “Subleading Soft Graviton Theorem for Loop Amplitudes,” JHEP 11 (2017), 123
doi:10.1007/JHEP11(2017)123 [arXiv:1703.00024 [hep-th]].

[81] A. Laddha and A. Sen, “Sub-subleading Soft Graviton Theorem in Generic The-
ories of Quantum Gravity,” JHEP 10 (2017), 065 doi:10.1007/JHEP10(2017)065
[arXiv:1706.00759 [hep-th]].

[82] S. Chakrabarti, S. P. Kashyap, B. Sahoo, A. Sen and M. Verma, “Subleading Soft The-
orem for Multiple Soft Gravitons,” JHEP 12 (2017), 150 doi:10.1007/JHEP12(2017)150
[arXiv:1707.06803 [hep-th]].

[83] A. Laddha and A. Sen, “Observational Signature of the Logarithmic Terms

in the Soft Graviton Theorem,” Phys. Rev. D 100 (2019) no.2, 024009
doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.100.024009 [arXiv:1806.01872 [hep-th]].

[84] B. Sahoo and A. Sen, “Classical and Quantum Results on Logarithmic Terms in the
Soft Theorem in Four Dimensions,” JHEP 02 (2019), 086 doi:10.1007/JHEP02(2019)086
[arXiv:1808.03288 [hep-th]].

[85] A. P. Saha, B. Sahoo and A. Sen, “Proof of the classical soft graviton theorem in D = 4,”
JHEP 06 (2020), 153 doi:10.1007/JHEP06(2020)153 [arXiv:1912.06413 [hep-th]].

[86] B. Sahoo and A. Sen, “Classical Soft Graviton Theorem Rewritten,” [arXiv:2105.08739
[hep-th]].

[87] A. Sen, “Naturally Light Higgs Doublet in Supersymmetric E6 Grand Unified Theory,”
Phys. Rev. Lett. 55 (1985), 33 doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.55.33

[88] D. Nemeschansky and A. Sen, “Conformal Invariance of Supersymmetric σ Mod-

els on Calabi-yau Manifolds,” Phys. Lett. B 178 (1986), 365-369 doi:10.1016/0370-
2693(86)91394-8

[89] S. D. Mathur, S. Mukhi and A. Sen, “On the Classification of Rational Conformal Field
Theories,” Phys. Lett. B 213 (1988), 303-308 doi:10.1016/0370-2693(88)91765-0

[90] A. Sen, “D0-branes on T**n and matrix theory,” Adv. Theor. Math. Phys. 2 (1998), 51-59
doi:10.4310/ATMP.1998.v2.n1.a2 [arXiv:hep-th/9709220 [hep-th]].

[91] A. Sen, “S-duality Improved Superstring Perturbation Theory,” JHEP 11 (2013), 029
doi:10.1007/JHEP11(2013)029 [arXiv:1304.0458 [hep-th]].

[92] A. Sen, “Riding Gravity Away from Doomsday,” Int. J. Mod. Phys. D 24 (2015) no.12,
1544004 doi:10.1142/S0218271815440046 [arXiv:1503.08130 [hep-th]].

16
[93] S. P. Kashyap, S. Mondal, A. Sen and M. Verma, “Surviving in a Metastable de Sitter
Space-Time,” JHEP 09 (2015), 139 doi:10.1007/JHEP09(2015)139 [arXiv:1506.00772 [hep-
th]].

17