Related papers: Dynamical Vacuum Selection in String Theory
We overview the main configurations of D-brane probes in the AdS_5 x X^5 background of type IIB string theory (X^5 being a Sasaki-Einstein manifold), and examine their most salient features from the point of view of the dual quiver…
The first part of this review tries to provide a self-contained view of supersymmetry breaking from the bottom-up perspective. We thus describe N=1 supersymmetry in four dimensions, the Standard Model and the MSSM, with emphasis on the…
We study a configuration of D-branes in string theory that is described at low energies by a four-dimensional field theory with a dynamically broken chiral symmetry. In a certain region of the parameter space of the brane configuration the…
We develop the effective worldvolume theory for the dynamics of black branes with charges of the kind that arise in many supergravities and low-energy limits of string theory. Using this theory, we construct numerous new rotating black…
We review the construction of non-supersymmetric open string vacua in various dimensions. They can be obtained either projecting the (compactified) non-supersymmetric 0B theory, or applying the Scherk-Schwarz mechanism to open strings.…
Building on earlier work, we construct linear sigma models for strings on curved spaces in the presence of branes. Our models include an extremely general class of brane-worldvolume gauge field configurations. We explain in an accessible…
Supersymmetry breaking in string theory is expected to occur when moduli fields acquire non-trivial expectation values. In the early universe these fields start out displaced from their final destinations. I present some recent ideas about…
In this thesis, we address the problem of constructing the complete supersymmetric description of systems of $N$ nearly coincident Dirichlet $p$-branes (multiple D$p$-brane or mD$p$). A particularly important result is a completely…
Starting from a peculiar orientifold projection proposed long ago by Angelantonj and Cardella, we elaborate on a novel perturbative scenario that involves only D-branes, together with the two types of orientifold planes ${\rm O}_{\pm}$ and…
We study the dynamics of type I strings on Melvin backgrounds, with a single or multiple twisted two-planes. We construct two inequivalent types of orientifold models that correspond to (non-compact) irrational versions of Scherk-Schwarz…
We study N=1 four dimensional gauge theories as the world volume theory of D4-branes between NS 5-branes. We find constructions for a number of known field theory dualities involving $SU(N_c)\times SU(N_c')$ groups, coupled by matter fields…
We present the mechanism of the dynamical supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking at the metastable vacuum in the N=1 U(N) SUSY gauge theory with adjoint superfields. The dynamical SUSY breaking is triggered by the non-vanishing D-term coupled to the…
There is evidence that string theory possesses a large discretuum of stable and/or metastable ground states, with zero or four supersymmetries in four dimensions. I discuss critically the nature of this evidence. Assuming this "landscape"…
Existence of open string field theory solutions describing configurations of multiple space-filling D-branes has been a subject of numerous speculations for quite some time. In this talk we present some new results giving further support to…
We analyze homogeneous anisotropic cosmology driven by the dilaton and the self-interacting ``massive'' antisymmetric tensor field which are indispensable bosonic degrees with the graviton in the NS-NS sector of string theories with…
In these lectures, two different aspects of brane world scenarios in 5d gravity or string theory are discussed. In the first two lectures, work on how warped compactifications of 5d gravity theories can change the guise of the hierarchy…
We show that previous proposals to accommodate the MSSM with string theory N=0 non-supersymmetric compactifications coming from intersecting D6-branes may be made fully consistent with the cancellation of RR tadpoles. In this respect we…
I discuss conceptual issues associated with the presence of metastable AdS vacua in the string landscape. The geometry of the decay from one AdS to another is presented in detail, and various subtleties that are not present for flat or dS…
We suggest that the universe filled with unstable D-branes in their rolling tachyon vacuum state, described by periodic arrays of D-instantons along the imaginary time direction, may be a natural background for formulating string theory.…
We investigate codimension-one vacua arising from low energy effective actions inspired by string theory, with an eye to their consistency when localized sources are allowed in the equations of motion. We draw some inspiration from…