Description
String probes are a useful tool for studying the consistency conditions and properties of supergravity theories. I will present two novel applications along these lines. The first is a new link between the global form of gauge groups in the bulk and holomorphic simple current extensions of the worldsheet CFT of string probes, which gives a worldsheet explanation for the absence of global center one-form symmetries in variety of supergravity theories. The second application is a search for Gepner-like points in the landscape of 6d N=(1,0) supergravity models without tensor multiplets. This singles out five candidate supergravity models whose probe strings are governed by rational CFTs, making them amenable to detailed study despite the fact that they currently lack a known realization within string theory. This talk is based on works with Luca Novelli and Yann Proto.
