We develop techniques to compute higher loop string amplitudes for twisted N = 2 theories withĉ = 3 (i.e. the critical case). An important ingredient is the discovery of an anomaly at every genus in decoupling of BRST trivial states, captured to all orders by a master anomaly equation. In a particular realization of the N = 2 theories, the resulting string field theory is equivalent to a topological theory in six dimensions, the KodairaSpencer theory, which may be viewed as the closed string analog of the Chern-Simon theory. Using the mirror map this leads to computation of the 'number' of holomorphic curves of higher genus curves in Calabi-Yau manifolds. It is shown that topological amplitudes can also be reinterpreted as computing corrections to superpotential terms appearing in the effective 4d theory resulting from compactification of standard 10d superstrings on the corresponding N = 2 theory. Relations with c = 1 strings are also pointed out. 9/93

We study the stringy genus one partition function of N = 2 SCFT's. It is shown how to compute this using an anomaly in decoupling of BRST trivial states from the partition function. A particular limit of this partition function yields the partition function of topological theory coupled to topological gravity. As an application we compute the number of holomorphic elliptic curves over certain Calabi-Yau manifolds including the quintic threefold. This may be viewed as the first application of mirror symmetry at the string quantum level. 2/93

We study some non-perturbative aspects of N = 2 supersymmetric quantum field theories (both superconformal and massive deformations thereof). We show that the metric for the supersymmetric ground states, which in the conformal limit is essentially the same as Zamolodchikov's metric, is pseudo-topological and can be viewed as a result of fusion of the topological version of N 2 theory with its conjugate. For special marginal/relevant deformations (corresponding to theories with factorizable S-matrix), the ground State metric satisfies classical Toda/Affine Toda equations as a function of perturbation parameters. The unique consistent boundary conditions for these differential equations seem to predict the normalized OPE of chiral fields at the conformal point. Also the subset of N = 2 theories whose chiral ring is isomorphic to SU(N)k Verlinde ring turns out to lead to affine Toda equations of SU(N) type satisfied by the ground state metric.

We study general properties of the low-energy effective theory for 4D type II superstrings obtained by the compactification on an abstract (2,2) superconformal system. This is the basic step towards the construction of their moduli space. We give an explicit and general algorithm to convert the effective Lagrangian for the type IIA into that of type IIB superstring defined by the same (2,2) superconformal system (and vice versa). This map converts Kahler manifolds into quaternionic ones (and quaternionic into Kahlerian ones) and has a deep geometrical meaning. The relationship with the theory of normal quaternionic manifolds (and algebras), as well as with Jordan algebras, is outlined. It turns out that only a restricted class of quarternionic geometries is allowed in the string case. We derive a general and explicit formula for the (fully nonlinear) couplings of the vector-multiplets (IIA case) in terms of the basic three-point functions of the underlying superconformal theory. A number of illustrative examples is also presented.