Related papers: Non-Abelian Strings and Axions

A brief discussion is presented assessing the achievements and challenges of string phenomenology: the subfield dedicated to study the potential for string theory to make contact with particle physics and cosmology. Building from the well…

A new configuration of non-abelian D1-branes growing into D5-branes is found. This time the effect is triggered by a non-trivial electric field on the world-volume of the D1-branes and a constant RR 4-form potential. Based on the these…

Multi-brane backgrounds are studied in the framework of the background independent open string field theory. A simple description of the non-abelian degrees of freedom is given. Algebra of the differential operators acting on the space of…

We study the system of axion strings that forms in the early Universe if the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is restored after inflation. Using numerical simulations, we establish the existence of an asymptotic solution to which the system is…

The axion particle may or may not exist, but the axion field can be used, as shown here, in an explicitly local formulation of a chiral U(1) gauge theory with both classical and quantum gauge invariance. Nonabelian analogues of axion…

We study the general multi-axion systems, focusing on the possibility of large field inflation driven by axions. We find that through axion mixing from a non-diagonal metric on the moduli space and/or from St\"uckelberg coupling to a U(1)…

We discuss recent progress in describing a certain non-Abelian vortex string as a critical superstring on a conifold and clarify some subtle points. This particular solitonic vortex is supported in four-dimensional N=2 supersymmetric QCD…

I review at a non-technical level the use of the gauge-string duality to study aspects of heavy ion collisions, with special emphasis on the trailing string calculation of heavy quark energy loss. I include some brief speculations on how…

A method for implementing non-Abelian duality on string backgrounds is given. It is shown that a direct generalisation of the familiar Abelian duality induces an extra local symmetry in the gauge invariant theory. The non-Abelian isometry…

We review a selection of recent developments in the application of ideas of string theory to heavy ion physics. Our topics divide naturally into equilibrium and non-equilibrium phenomena. On the non-equilibrium side, we discuss…

This paper revisits the problem of the string decay contribution to the axion cosmological energy density. We show that this contribution is proportional to the average relative increase when axion strings decay of a certain quantity…

Axions have for some time been considered a plausible candidate for dark matter. They can be produced through misalignment, but it has been argued that when inflation occurs before a Peccei-Quinn transition, appreciable production can…

We comment on a claim that axion strings show a long-term logarithmic increase in the number of Hubble lengths per Hubble volume [arXiv:2007.04990], thereby violating the standard "scaling" expectation of an O(1) constant. We demonstrate…

Axions constitute a well-motivated dark matter candidate, and if PQ symmetry breaking occurred after inflation, it should be possible to make a clean prediction for the relation between the axion mass and the axion dark matter density. We…

A generic low-energy prediction of string theory is the existence of a large collection of axions, commonly known as a string axiverse. Axions also have a natural cosmological production mechanism, vacuum misalignment, making them…

This review is devoted to strings and branes. Firstly, perturbative string theory is introduced. The appearance of various types of branes is discussed. These include orbifold fixed planes, D-branes and orientifold planes. The connection to…

Axions arise in many theoretical extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics, in particular the "string axiverse". If the axion masses, $m_a$, and (effective) decay constants, $f_a$, lie in specific ranges, then axions contribute…

In this thesis, we re-assess some aspects of axionic electrodynamics by coupling non-linear electromagnetic effects to axion physics. We present a number of motivations to justify the coupling of the axion to the photon in terms of a…

In this talk we show that the tachyon annihilation combined with an approximation, in which string theory non-commutativity structure is captured by the algebra of differential operators on space-time, gives a unified point of view on:…

We review diverse two-dimensional models emerging on the world sheet of non-Abelian strings in the low-energy limit. Non-Abelian strings are supported in a class of four-dimensional bulk theories with or without supersymmetry. In…