Related papers: Jumping Through Loops: On Soft Terms from Large Vo…
In this review we describe our current understanding of the properties of open string tachyons on an unstable D-brane or brane-antibrane system in string theory. The various string theoretic methods used for this study include techniques of…
In this thesis we study string theory with D-branes and possibly orientifolds in curved or time-dependent spaces. Our study aims at understanding some aspects of curved and time-dependent spaces, notably because of their importance in…
We discuss supersymmetry breaking via 3-form fluxes in chiral supersymmetric type IIB orientifold vacua with D3- and D7-branes. After a general discussion of possible choices of fluxes allowing for stabilizing of a part of the moduli, we…
A brief overview is presented of the progress made during the past few years on the general structure of local models of particle physics from string theory including: moduli stabilisation, supersymmetry breaking, global embedding in…
We show that in closed string topology and in open-closed string topology with one $D$-brane, higher genus stable string operations are trivial. This is a consequence of Harer's stability theorem and related stability results on the…
We study total and partial supersymmetry breaking by freely acting orbifolds, or equivalently by Scherk-Schwarz compactifications, in type I string theory. In particular, we describe a four-dimensional chiral compactification with…
Motivated by closed string perturbation theory arguments by S. Shenker, we consider non-perturbative effects of characteristic strength $\mathcal{O}(e^{-1/g_{s}})$, with $g_{s}$ the closed string coupling constant, in supersymmetric…
We consider a $\sigma$-model formulation of open string theory in the presence of D-branes. We perform two-loop computations and discuss gravitational corrections to Born-Infeld action when branes are non-trivially embedded in a curved…
We analyze the D-branes of a type IIB string theory on an orbifold singularity including the possibility of discrete torsion following the work of Douglas et al. First we prove some general results about the moduli space of a point…
We study different phenomenological aspects of compact, D=4, N=1 Type IIB orientifolds considered as models for unification of the standard model and gravity. We discuss the structure of the compactification, string and unification scales…
We analyze solutions of string theory and supergravity which involve real hyperbolic spaces. Examples of string compactifications are given in terms of hyperbolic coset spaces of finite volume $\Gamma\backslash {\mathbb H}^N$, where…
This is a review. Comments are welcome. The observation that the structure of string theory is rich enough to include the standard model in rough outline is an old one, starting with the early constructions of free field constructions,…
Field redefinitions occur in string compactifications at the one loop level. We review arguments for why such redefinitions occur and study their effect on moduli stabilisation and supersymmetry breaking in the LARGE volume scenario. For…
This thesis contains an introductory chapter on orbifolds. The following chapter explains the foundations of orientifolds. Chapters 4-7 present own research. In chapter 4 we quantize open strings with linear boundary conditions, as they…
Tree-level moduli stabilization via geometric and non-geometric fluxes in type IIB orientifolds on Calabi-Yau manifolds is investigated. The focus is on stable non-supersymmetric minima, where all moduli are fixed except for some massless…
We discuss the effect of the dynamics of D-branes on moduli stabilization in type IIB string theory compactifications, with reference to a concrete toy model of T6/Z3 orientifold compactification with fractional D3-branes and anti-D3-branes…
We study the phenomenology of the strong-coupling limit of $E_8\times E_8$ heterotic string obtained from M-theory, using a Calabi-Yau compactification. After summarizing the standard embedding results, we concentrate on non-standard…
We study the Fayet-Iliopoulos (FI) D-terms on D-branes in type II Calabi-Yau backgrounds. We provide a simple worldsheet proof of the fact that, at tree level, these terms only couple to scalars in closed string hypermultiplets. At the…
This thesis investigates correspondences between open and closed strings. This is done on the level of coupled open-closed moduli spaces and from a string field theoretic point of view. The construction of boundary string field theory on…
String theory contains sources like orientifold planes that support higher derivative interactions. These interactions make possible static flux compactifications which are forbidden in supergravity. They can also lead to violations of the…