Related papers: Cosmological Constraints on Strongly Coupled Modul…
Moduli fields are generally present in superstring--inspired models. They are typically characterized by masses of the order of the supersymmetry breaking scale and by interactions of gravitational strength to ordinary matter. If stable,…
We study the spectrum, couplings and cosmological and astrophysical implications of the moduli fields for the class of Calabi-Yau IIB string compactifications for which moduli stabilisation leads to an exponentially large volume V ~ 10^{15}…
A scenario which overcomes the well-known cosmological overshoot problem associated with stabilizing moduli with steep potentials in string theory is proposed. Our proposal relies on the fact that moduli potentials are very steep and that…
There are at least two serious moduli problems in string cosmology. The first is the possibility that moduli dominate the energy density at the time of nucleosynthesis. The second is that they may not find their minima all together. After…
String gas cosmology is an approach towards studying the effects of superstring theory on early universe cosmology which is based on new symmetries and new degrees of freedom of string theory. Within this context, it appears possible to…
We review some aspects of moduli in string theory. We argue that one should focus on {\it approximate moduli spaces}, and that there is evidence that such spaces exist non-perturbatively. We ask what it would mean for string theory to…
We explore the possibility that (Bose-Einstein) condensation of scalar fields from string compactifications can lead to long-lived compact objects. Depending on the type of scalar fields we find different realisations of star-like and…
Low energy effective actions arising from string theory typically contain many scalar fields, some with a very complicated potential and others with no potential at all. The evolution of these scalars is of great interest. Their late time…
Cosmological moduli generically come to dominate the energy density of the early universe, and thereby trigger an early matter dominated era. Such non-standard cosmological histories are expected to have profound effects on the evolution…
In string/M-theory with a large compactification radius, some axion-like moduli can be much lighter than the gravitino. Generic moduli in gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking models also have a mass far below the weak scale. Motivated by…
We study CMB constraints on a model with a cosmological constant and a fraction of dark matter non-minimally coupled to a massless scalar field. In this scenario, there is an extra gravity-like fifth force which can affect the evolution of…
In this talk I will discuss the role of finite temperature quantum corrections in string cosmology and show that they can lead to a stabilization mechanism for the volume moduli. I will show that from the higher dimensional perspective this…
We derive a constraint on the cosmic density of string moduli fields in gauge-mediated supersymmetry-breaking theories by requiring that photons emitted from the unstable moduli fields should not exceed the observed X-ray backgrounds. Since…
Many models of supersymmetry breaking, in the context of either supergravity or superstring theories, predict the presence of particles with Planck-suppressed couplings and masses around the weak scale. These particles are generically…
Cosmic Microwave Background satellite missions as the on-going Planck experiment are expected to provide the strongest constraints on a wide set of cosmological parameters. Those constraints, however, could be weakened when the assumption…
The generic expectation in string/supergravity models is that there are multiple moduli fields with masses of the order of the supersymmetry breaking scale. We study the cosmology that arises as a result of vacuum misalignment of these…
We describe the detailed study and results of high-resolution numerical simulations of string-induced structure formation in open universes and those with a non-zero cosmological constant. The effect from small loops generated from the…
We study moduli stabilization by thermal effects in the cosmological context. The implementation of finite temperature, which spontaneously breaks supersymmetry, induces an effective potential at one loop level. At the points where extra…
We investigate the cosmological consequences of particle physics theories that admit stable loops of superconducting cosmic string - {\it vortons}. General symmetry breaking schemes are considered, in which strings are formed at one energy…
The existence of a dilaton (or moduli) with gravitational-strength coupling to matter imposes stringent constraints on the allowed energy scale of cosmic strings, $\eta$. In particular, superheavy gauge strings with $\eta \sim 10^{16} GeV$…