Related papers: Cosmological Constraints on Strongly Coupled Modul…
In extra-dimensional models which are compactified on an n-torus (n>1) there exist moduli associated with the torus volume (which sets the fundamental Planck scale), the ratios of the torus radii, and the angle(s) of periodicity. We…
Cosmic string loops contain cusps which decay by emitting bursts of particles. A significant fraction of the released energy is in the form of photons. These photons are injected non-thermally and can hence cause spectral distortions of the…
We review the notion of the Higgs effect in the context of string theory. We find that by including this effect in time dependent backgrounds, one is led to a natural mechanism for stabilizing moduli at points of enhanced gauge symmetry. We…
We show that if there is a realistic 4-d string, the dilaton and moduli supermultiplets will generically acquire a small mass O(m_{3/2}), providing the only vacuum-independent evidence of low-energy physics in string theory beyond the…
In this talk I discuss recent developments in moduli stabilisation, SUSY breaking and chiral D-brane models together with several interesting features of cosmological models built in the framework of type IIB string compactifications. I…
Recent work on four dimensional effective descriptions of the heterotic string has identified the moduli of such systems as being given by kernels of maps between ordinary Dolbeault cohomology groups. The maps involved are defined by the…
We find de Sitter and flat space solutions with all moduli stabilized in four dimensional supergravity theories derived from the heterotic and type II string theories, and explain how all the previously known obstacles to finding such…
The collisions of cosmic strings loops and the dynamics of junctions formations in expanding backgrounds are studied. The key parameter controlling the dynamics of junctions formation, the cosmic strings zipping and unzipping is the…
Cosmology yields the most restrictive limits on neutrino masses and conversely, massive neutrinos would contribute to the cosmic dark-matter density and would play an important role for the formation of structure in the universe. Neutrino…
We investigate a string-inspired dark energy scenario featuring a scalar field with a coupling to the Gauss-Bonnet invariant. Such coupling can trigger the onset of late dark energy domination after a scaling matter era. The universe may…
We investigate the cosmological constraints on axion models where the domain wall number is greater than one. In these models, multiple domain walls attached to strings are formed, and they survive for a long time. Their annihilation occurs…
String theory axions appear to be promising candidates for explaining cosmological constant via quintessence. In this paper, we study conditions on the string compactifications under which axion quintessence can happen. For sufficiently…
We discuss cosmological constraints on a dark scalar particle mixing with the Standard Model Higgs boson. We pay particular attention to the dark scalar production process when the reheating temperature of the Universe is very low, which…
Cosmic strings formed during inflation are expected to be either diluted over super-Hubble distances, i.e., invisible today, or to have crossed our past light cone very recently. We discuss the latter situation in which a few strings…
We study the cosmic microwave background temperature and polarisation spectra sourced by multi-tension cosmic superstring networks. First we obtain solutions for the characteristic length scales and velocities associated with the evolution…
Stabilizing all of the modulus fields coming from compactifications of string theory on internal manifolds is one of the outstanding challenges for string cosmology. Here, in a simple example of toroidal compactification, we study the…
The dynamics of superstring, supergravity and M theories and their compactifications are probed by studying the various perturbation theories that emerge in the strong and weak coupling limits for various directions in coupling constant…
It has been suggested that cosmological dark matter may include a population of vortons (meaning small centrifugally stabilised cosmic string loops) as an outcome of (non-standard) electroweak symmetry breaking. The implications for this…
The presence of a cosmological constant, Lambda, in an action with higher powers of the curvature can produce rapidly oscillating metrics. We develop a perturbative approach for generating periodic solutions to the non-linear field…
We re-visit the production of cosmic rays by cusps on cosmic strings. If a scalar field (``Higgs'') has a linear interaction with the string world-sheet, such as would occur if there is a bosonic condensate on the string, cusps on string…