Related papers: Brane/flux annihilation transitions and nonperturb…
We combine moduli stabilisation and (chiral) model building in a fully consistent global set-up in Type IIB/F-theory. We consider compactifications on Calabi-Yau orientifolds which admit an explicit description in terms of toric geometry.…
We consider D-branes in group manifolds, from the point of view of open strings and using the Born-Infeld action on the brane worldvolume. D-branes correspond to certain integral (twined) conjugacy classes. We explain the integrality…
We explain how D-branes on group manifolds are stabilized against shrinking by quantized worldvolume U(1) fluxes. Starting from the Born-Infeld action in the case of the SU(2) group manifold we derive the masses, multiplicities and spectrum…
We elucidate various aspects of the physics of thraxions, ultra-light axions arising at Klebanov-Strassler multi-throats in the compactification space of IIB superstring theory. We study the combined stabilization of K\"ahler moduli and…
Problems of stabilizing moduli of the type--IIB string theory on toroidal orientifolds $\T^6/\Z_2$, in presence of worldvolume fluxes on various D-branes, are considered. For $Z_2$ actions, introducing either O9 or O3 planes, we rule out…
We study warped compactifications to three dimensions, realized as an orientifold of type IIA string theory on T^7. By turning on 3- and 4-form fluxes on the torus in a supersymmetric way, we generate a potential for the moduli fields. We…
We present a curvaton model from type IIB string theory compactified on a warped throat with approximate isometries. Considering an (anti-)D3-brane sitting at the throat tip as a prototype standard model brane, we show that the brane's…
We study moduli stabilization in Calabi-Yau orientifold compactifications of type IIB string theory with O3- and O7-planes. We consider a Calabi-Yau three-fold with Hodge number $h^{2,1}=50$ and stabilize all axio-dilaton and…
We propose a new mechanism of (geometric) moduli stabilisation in type IIB/F-theory four-dimensional compactifications on Calabi-Yau manifolds, in the presence of 7-branes, that does not rely on non-perturbative effects. Complex structure…
It has recently been appreciated that the conifold modulus plays an important role in string-phenomenological set-ups involving warped throats, both by imposing constraints on model building and for obtaining a 10-dimensional picture of…
We describe the back-reaction of gaugino condensates in supersymmetric AdS$_4$ Type II String Theory compactifications with fluxes. We use generalized complex geometry to capture the modification of the ten-dimensional supersymmetry…
We use F-theory to derive a general expression for the flux potential of type II compactifications with D7/D3 branes, including open string moduli and 2-form fluxes on the branes. Our main example is F-theory on K3 $\times$ K3 and its…
We study the scalar potential in supersymmetric (orientifolded) Calabi Yau compactifications of Type IIB theory. We present a new mechanism to stabilize all closed string moduli at leading order in \alpha^{'} by introducing consistently…
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…
In the present paper, we reexamine the moduli stabilization problem of the Type IIB orientifolds with one complex structure modulus in a modified two-step procedure. The full superpotential including both the 3-form fluxes and the…
We study the process of black brane evaporation through the emission of D-branes. Gravitational solutions describing black branes in asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes, which are holographically dual to field theory states at finite…
We investigate in detail the cosmological consequences of realistic angular dependent potentials in the brane inflation scenario. Embedding a warped throat into a compact Calabi-Yau space with all moduli stabilized breaks the no-scale…
We improve on the understanding of the backreaction of anti-D6-branes in a flux background that is mutually BPS with D6-branes. This setup is analogous to the study of the backreaction of anti-D3-branes inserted in the KS throat, but does…
Combining the benefits of D-branes and background fluxes in string compactifications opens up the possibility to explore phenomenologically interesting brane world models with stabilized moduli. However, it is difficult to determine…
We discover that a class of bubbles of nothing are embedded as time dependent scaling limits of previous spacelike-brane solutions. With the right initial conditions, a near-bubble solution can relax its expansion and open the compact…