Related papers: Les Houches Lectures on Constructing String Vacua
The study of curved D-brane geometries in type II strings implies a general relation between local singularities $\cx W$ of Calabi-Yau manifolds and gravity free supersymmetric QFT's. The minimal supersymmetric case is described by F-theory…
Theories in more than ten dimensions play an important role in understanding nonperturbative aspects of string theory. Consistent compactifications of such theories can be constructed via Calabi-Yau fourfolds. These models can be analyzed…
We develop a technique for computing expected numbers of vacua in Gaussian ensembles of supergravity theories, and apply it to derive an asymptotic formula for the index counting all flux supersymmetric vacua with signs in Calabi-Yau…
Using F-theory/heterotic duality, we describe a framework for analyzing non-geometric T2-fibered heterotic compactifications to six- and four-dimensions. Our results suggest that among T2-fibered heterotic string vacua, the non-geometric…
We present deep observations in targeted regions of the string landscape through a combination of analytic and dedicated numerical methods. Specifically, we devise an algorithm designed for the systematic construction of Type IIB flux vacua…
We construct N=1 and N=0 chiral four-dimensional vacua of flux compactification in Type IIB string theory. These vacua have the common features that they are free of tadpole instabilities (both NSNS and RR) even for models with N=0…
We employ powerful techniques based on Hilbert- and Groebner bases to analyze particle physics models derived from string theory. Individual models are shown to have a huge landscape of vacua that differ in their phenomenological…
The possible existence of (meta-) stable de Sitter vacua in string theory is of fundamental importance. So far, there are no fully stable solutions where all effects are under perturbative control. In this paper we investigate the presence…
We review recent progress in the construction of four-dimensional vacua of Type II string theory and F-theory which yield the Standard Model of particle physics (SM) or extensions thereof. In Type II orientifold compactifications the SM…
Recent developments in string theory suggest that string theory landscape of vacua is vast. It is natural to ask if this landscape is as vast as allowed by consistent-looking effective field theories. We use universality ideas from string…
We study type IIA string theory compactified on Calabi-Yau fourfolds and heterotic string theory compactified on Calabi-Yau threefolds times a two-torus. We derive the resulting effective theories which have two space-time dimensions and…
We review particle physics model building in type IIB string theory and F-theory. This is a region in the landscape where in principle many of the key ingredients required for a realistic model of particle physics can be combined…
We present a brief overview of attempts to construct de Sitter vacua in string theory and explain how the results of this 20-year endeavor could point to the fact that string theory harbors no de Sitter vacua at all. Making such a statement…
I illustrate the existence of quasi-realistic heterotic-string models in which all the untwisted Kaehler and complex structure moduli, as well as all of the twisted sectors moduli, are projected out by the generalized GSO projections. I…
In this review I discuss some basic aspects of non-perturbative string theory. The topics include test of duality symmetries based on the analysis of the low energy effective action and the spectrum of BPS states, relationship between…
These lecture notes are based on lectures given by the author at the Les Houches 2025 summer school on "Exact Solvability and Quantum Information". The central theme of these notes is to apply the philosophy of statistical mechanics to…
The role of open strings is investigated in the context of AdS$_{3}$ flux vacua arising from type IIB orientifold reductions. On the one hand, contrary to expectations, the perturbative stability of certain recently found non-supersymmetric…
The first part is an introduction to conformal field theory and string perturbation theory. The second part deals with the search for a deeper answer to the question posed in the title. Contents: 1. Conformal Field Theory 2. String Theory…
In this paper we investigate compactifications of the type II and heterotic string on four-dimensional spaces with nongeometric monodromies. We explicitly construct backgrounds which contain the "Duality Twists" discussed by Dabholkar and…
In order to lift the continuous moduli space of string vacua, non-trivial fluxes may be the essential input. In this talk I summarize aspects of two approaches to compactifications in the presence of fluxes: (i) generalized Scherk-Schwarz…