Brane tilings and their applications

We review recent developments in the theory of brane tilings and four-dimensional N = 1 supersymmetric quiver gauge theories. This review consists of two parts. In part 1, we describe foundations of brane tilings, emphasizing the physical interpretation of brane tilings as fivebrane systems. In part II, we discuss application of brane tilings to AdS/CFT correspondence and homological mirror symmetry. More topics, such as orientifold of brane tilings, phenomenological model building, similarities with BPS solitons in supersymmetric gauge theories, are also briefly discussed. This paper is a revised version of the author's master's thesis submitted to Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, the University of Tokyo on January 2008, and is based on his several papers and some works in progress [1-7]. (C) 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Wcinheim.