Related papers: Where in the String Landscape is Quintessence
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…
Motivated by the swampland conjectures, we study cosmological signatures of a quintessence potential which induces time variation in the low energy effective field theory. After deriving the evolution of the quintessence field, we…
The simplest string theory compactifications to 3D with 16 supercharges -- the heterotic string on $T^7$, and type II strings on $K3 \times T^3$ -- are related by U-duality, and share a moduli space of vacua parametrized by $O(8,24;…
It has recently been argued that string theory does not admit de Sitter vacua. This would imply that the current accelerated expansion of the universe is not driven by a cosmological constant (or vacuum energy) but by other means such as a…
The cosmological constant and electroweak hierarchy problem have been a great inspiration for research. Nevertheless, the resolution of these two naturalness problems remains mysterious from the perspective of a low-energy effective field…
I review the issue of string and compactification scales in the weak-coupling regimes of string theory. I explain how in the Brane World scenario a (effectively) two-dimensional transverse space that is hierarchically larger than the string…
The late time behavior of the slow-roll parameter in the stringy quintessence model is studied when axion as well as saxion are allowed to move. Even though the potential is independent of the axion at tree level, the axion can move through…
A four-dimensional universe, arising from a flux compactification of Type IIB string theory, contains scalar fields with a potential determined by topological and geometric parameters of the internal -hidden- dimensions. We show that…
In this thesis we study the framework of asymptotic Hodge theory and its applications in both the string landscape and the landscape of 2d integrable field theories. We show how this mathematical framework allows for a general…
String theory posesses numerous axion candidates. The recent realization that the compactification radius in string theory might be large means that these states can solve the strong CP problem. This still leaves the question of the…
A method to solve various aspects of the strong coupling expansion of the superconformal field theory duals of AdS_5 x X geometries from first principles is proposed. The main idea is that at strong coupling the configurations that dominate…
With respect to the question of supersymmetry breaking, there are three branches of the flux landscape. On one of these, if one requires small cosmological constant, supersymmetry breaking is predominantly at the fundamental scale; on…
A consistent theory of supersymmetry breaking must have a hidden sector, an observable sector, and must be embedded in a locally supersymmetric theory which arises from string theory. For phenomenological reasons it must also transmit…
The fate of shift-symmetries in effective string models is considered beyond tree-level. Such symmetries have been proposed in the past as a way to maintain a hierarchically small Higgs mass and also play a role in schemes of cosmological…
In light of the recent work by Sen and Gibbons, we present a phase-plane analysis on the cosmology containing a rolling tachyon field in a potential resulted from string theory. We show that there is no stable point on the phase-plane,…
Three branches of the string theory landscape have plausibly been identified. One of these branches is expected to exhibit a roughly logarithmic distribution of supersymmetry breaking scales. The original KKLT models are in this class. We…
Recent developments in string theory have led to "realistic" string compactifications which lead to moduli stabilization while generating a hierarchy between the Electroweak and Planck scales at the same time. However, this seems to suggest…
Embeddings of the standard model in type II string theory typically contain a variety of U(1) gauge factors arising from D-branes in the bulk. In general, there is no reason why only one of these - the one corresponding to weak hypercharge…
Various nonsupersymmetric theories at large but finite $N$ are argued to permit light scalars and large hierarchies without fine-tuning. In a dual string description, the hierarchy results from competition between classical and quantum…
We discuss the singularities in the moduli space of string compactifications to six dimensions with $N=1$ supersymmetry. Such singularities arise from either massless particles or non-critical tensionless strings. The points with…