Related papers: Geometric Precipices in String Cosmology
It is pointed out that string-loop effects may generate matter couplings for the dilaton allowing this scalar partner of the tensorial graviton to stay massless while contributing to macroscopic gravity in a way naturally compatible with…
The weakly-coupled heterotic string is known to have problems of dilaton/moduli stabilization, supersymmetry breaking (by hidden-sector gaugino condensation), gauge coupling unification (or the Newton's constant), QCD axion, as well as…
We explore the origin of Majorana masses within the majoron model and how this can lead to the generation of a distinguishable primordial stochastic background of gravitational waves. We first show how in the simplest majoron model only a…
An important element in a model of non-singular string cosmology is a phase in which classical corrections saturate the growth of curvature in a deSitter-like phase with a linearly growing dilaton (an `algebraic fixed point'). As the form…
In an analysis of the gravitational lensing by two relativistic cosmic strings, we argue that the formation of closed time-like curves proposed by Gott is unstable in the presence of particles (e.g. the cosmic microwave background…
We find asymptotically anti de Sitter solutions in N=8 supergravity which have negative total energy. This is possible since the boundary conditions required for the positive energy theorem are stronger than those required for finite mass…
Here, cosmology is obtained from the variable gravitational constant $ G \propto \phi^{-2}$ with $ \phi(x) $ being a scalar and its fluctuations around the ground state. The gravitational action contains Einstein-Hilbert like term with…
In this paper we examine the evolution of the effective field theory describing a conifold transition in type IIB string theory. Previous studies have considered such dynamics starting from the cosmological approximation of homogeneous…
The idea of GUT implies that the universe went through a series of phase transitions during which topological defects are expected to form. We investigate here the genericity of cosmic strings formation in realistic SUSY GUTs models. We…
We review recent simulations of the formation of a particular class of non-topological defects known as semilocal strings during a phase transition. Semilocal strings have properties that are intermediate between topological cosmic strings…
Point particles fall freely along geodesics; strings do not. In string theory all probes of spacetime structure, including photons, are extended objects and therefore always subject to tidal forces. We illustrate how string theory modifies…
In the context of the pre-Big Bang scenario of string cosmology, we propose a modified equation for the evolution of the tensor perturbations, which includes the full contribution of possible higher-order curvature and coupling corrections…
We study the effect of higher-curvature terms in the string low-energy effective actions on the cosmological solutions of the theory, up to corrections quartic in the curvatures, for the bosonic and heterotic strings as well as the type II…
Thermal duality is a relationship between the behaviour of heterotic string models of the $E(8)x E(8)$ or $SO(32)$ types at inversely related temperatures, a variant of T duality in the Euclidean regime. This duality would have consequences…
Cosmic strings, as remnants of the symmetry breaking phase in the Early Universe, may be susceptible to non-local physics. Here we show that the presence of a Poincar\'e-invariant non-locality -- parametrized by a factor $\exp(-\Box\ell^2)$…
A network of cosmic strings (CS), if present, would continue emitting gravitational waves (GW) as it evolves throughout the history of the Universe. This results in a characteristic broad spectrum making it a perfect source to infer the…
When gauged cosmic strings form in a symmetry-breaking phase transition, the gauge field configuration at the time becomes imprinted in the spatial string distribution by the flux trapping mechanism. It is shown that quantum and thermal…
The dynamics of a cosmological (de)confinement phase transition is studied in nearly conformally invariant field theories, where confinement is predominantly spontaneously generated and associated with a light "dilaton" field. We show how…
We address the important issue of stabilizing the dilaton in the context of superstring cosmology. Scalar potentials which arise out of gaugino condensates in string models are generally exponential in nature. In a cosmological setting this…
String theory can (in principle) describe gravity at all curvature scales, and can be applied to cosmology to look back in time beyond the Planck epoch. The duality symmetries of string theory suggest a cosmological picture in which the…