Related papers: String junctions in curved backgrounds, their stab…
We study some features of the confining string connecting a quark-anti-quark pair in Yang-Mills theory. Monte Carlo investigations of the flux tube between two static quarks in the fundamental representation show that its thickness…
If nature is described by string theory, and if the compactification radius is large (as suggested by the unification of couplings), then the theory is in a regime best described by the low energy limit of $M$-theory. We discuss some…
A brief discussion is presented assessing the achievements and challenges of string phenomenology: the subfield dedicated to study the potential for string theory to make contact with particle physics and cosmology. Building from the well…
Is perturbative stability intimately tied with the existence of spacetime fermions in string theory in more than two dimensions? Type 0'B string theory in ten-dimensional flat space is a rare example of a non-tachyonic, non-supersymmetric…
The fundamental string length, which is an essential part of string theory, explicitly breaks scale invariance. However, in field theory we demonstrated recently that the gravitational constant, which is directly related to the string…
We review how to describe the stable non-BPS D-branes of type II string theory from a classical perspective, and discuss the properties of the space-time geometry associated to these configurations. This is relevant in order to see whether…
Dyson-Schwinger equations furnish a Poincare' covariant framework within which to study hadrons. A particular feature is the existence of a nonperturbative, symmetry preserving truncation that enables the proof of exact results. The gap…
We show that the electroweak $Z-$string can be stabilized by the presence of bound states of a complex scalar field. We argue that fermions coupled to the scalar field of the string can also make the string stable and discuss the physical…
We consider magnetically charged baryon vertex like configurations in AdS^4 X CP^3 with a reduced number of quarks l. We show that these configurations are solutions to the classical equations of motion and are stable beyond a critical…
The paper addresses the problem of suppressing naturally the unsafe d=4 as well as the color-triplet mediated and/or gravity-linked d=5 proton-decay operators, which generically arise in SUSY-unification. It also attempts to give light…
We discuss the stability of an electroweak string with axions in its core, which give to the configuration a quasi-topological property, and compare it with other modifications using instantons in the thin wall approximation.
We investigate the Hagedorn transitions of string networks with Y-junctions as may occur, for example, with (p,q) cosmic superstrings. In a simplified model with three different types of string, the partition function reduces to three…
It was shown in arXiv:1410.7168 that compactifying $D=6$, $\mathcal{N}=(1,0)$ ungauged supergravity coupled to a single tensor multiplet on S$^3$ one gets a particular $D=3$, $\mathcal{N}=4$ gauged supergravity which is a consistent…
A recently proposed \ell=\infty field theory model of tachyon dynamics for unstable bosonic D-branes has been shown to arise as the two-derivative truncation of (boundary)-string field theory. Using an \ell\to \infty limit appropriate to…
We study the stability of extra dimensions in string gas cosmology at late times. Vacuum energy and, interestingly, baryons lead to decompactification after they become dynamically important. The string gas can stabilise the effect of…
Macroscopic fundamental and Dirichlet strings have several potential instabilities: breakage, tachyon decays, and confinement by axion domain walls. We investigate the conditions under which metastable strings can exist, and we find that…
All the models of elementary particles and their interactions derived from String Theory involve a compact six-dimensional internal space. Its volume and shape should be fixed or stabilized, since otherwise massless scalar fields (moduli)…
We perform here a critical analysis of some non-supersymmetric gravity solutions in Type 0B string theory. We first consider the most general configuration of parallel N electric and M magnetic D3-branes. The field theory living on their…
We show how the classical string dynamics in $D$-dimensional curved background can be reduced to the dynamics of a massless particle constrained on a certain surface whenever there exists at least one Killing vector for the background…
We report on the geometry and mechanics of knotted stiff strings. We discuss both closed and open knots. Our two main results are: (i) Their equilibrium energy as well as the equilibrium tension for open knots depend on the type of knot as…