Related papers: Cosmic Strings with Small Tension
Instant Folded Strings (IFSs) are unconventional light strings that emerge when the string coupling increases with time. A particularly intriguing property of IFSs, especially relevant to cosmology, is that they violate the Null Energy…
We study the cosmological evolution of a D3-brane Universe in a type 0 string background. We follow the brane-universe along the radial coordinate of the background and we calculate the energy density which is induced on the brane because…
Type IIB strings compactified on K3 have a rich structure of solitonic strings, transforming under SO(21,5,Z). We derive the BPS tension formula for these strings, and discuss their properties, in particular, the points in the moduli space…
Flat directions are a generic feature of the scalar potential in supersymmetric gauge field theories. They can arise, for example, from D-terms associated with an extra abelian gauge symmetry. Even when supersymmetry is broken softly, there…
We address the question of finding stable and metastable cosmic strings in quasi-realistic heterotic M-theory compactifications with stabilized moduli. According to Polchinski's conjecture, the only stable strings in the absence of massless…
We study cosmic strings in the complex symmetron model, a scalar-tensor theory with a spontaneously broken local $U(1)$ symmetry in low matter density regions. Using numerical simulations, we show that these strings preferentially attach to…
Cosmic (super)strings offer promising ways to test ideas about the early universe and physics at high energies. While in field theory constructions their tension is usually assumed to be constant (or at most slowly-varying), this is often…
We present a comprehensive study of the cosmological solutions of 6D braneworld models with azimuthal symmetry in the extra dimensions, moduli stabilization by flux or a bulk scalar field, and which contain at least one 3-brane that could…
The use of a non-Riemannian measure of integration in the action of strings and branes allows the possibility of dynamical tension. In particular, lower dimensional objects living in the string/brane can induce discontinuities in the…
We present results of a cosmological hydrodynamical study of gravitational accretion in cosmic string wakes and filaments. Cosmic string wakes are formed by fast moving (v ~ c) strings. A conical deficit angle in the string spacetime…
We briefly review the distinctive signals of brane world models with low tension. We pay special attention to the brane fluctuations (branons), whose phenomenological consequences could be important both in high energy particle physics…
We consider locally consistent systems of magnetized D9 branes on an orbifolded six-torus which support N=1 gauge theories. In such realizations, the matter multiplets arise from "twisted" strings connecting different stacks of branes. The…
We use the boundary state formalism to study, from the closed string point of view, superpositions of branes and anti-branes which are relevant in some non-perturbative string dualities. Treating the tachyon instability of these systems as…
It is shown that topologically stable cosmic strings can, in fact, appear to end or to break, even in theories without monopoles. This can occur whenever the spatial topology of the universe is nontrivial. For the case of Abelian-Higgs…
We confront the problem of giving a fundamental definition to perturbative string theory in spacetimes with totally compact space (taken to be a torus for simplicity, though the nature of the problem is very general) and non-compact time.…
We review applications of string theory to cosmology, from primordial times to the present-day accelerated expansion. Starting with a brief overview of cosmology and string compactifications, we discuss in detail moduli stabilisation,…
The four six-dimensional ``little string'' theories are all described in the infinite momentum frame (IMF) as matrix theories by non-trivial 1+1 dimensional infra-red fixed points. We characterize these fixed points using supergravity.…
We find examples in string theory of locally wrapped D-branes. These excitations mimic skyrmions in that they correspond to topological excitations of the scalar fields parametrizing the brane motion in the space transverse to its…
We describe a simple method for generating new string solutions for which the brane worldvolume is a curved space. As a starting point we use solutions with NS-NS charges combined with 2-d CFT's representing different parts of space-time.…
We perturbatively construct asymptotically $\mathbb{R}^{1,3}\times\mathbb{T}^2$ black branes with multiple inhomogeneous directions and show that some of them are thermodynamically preferred over uniform branes in both the microcanonical…