Related papers: On Climbing Scalars in String Theory
Superstring theories are very promising theoretically, but the enormous landscape of string vacua and the (likely) very large underlying string scale imply that they may never be tested directly. Nevertheless, concrete constructions…
The tachyon-free nonsupersymmetric string theories in ten dimensions have dilaton tadpoles which forbid a Minkowski vacuum. We determine the maximally symmetric backgrounds for the $USp(32)$ Type I string and the $SO(16)\times SO(16)$…
Supersymmetric theories in four dimensions with chiral superfields have very rich BRS cohomology, which gives rise to potential anomalies in theories that contain composite antichiral spinor superfields. Assuming the coefficients are…
We consider the low energy description of five dimensional models of supergravity with boundaries comprising a vector multiplet and the universal hypermultiplet in the bulk. We analyse the spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry induced by…
We compute string scattering amplitudes in an orbifold of Minkowski space by a boost, and show how certain divergences in the four point function are associated with graviton exchange near the singularity. These divergences reflect large…
In this study, we present the phase-space analysis of Quintessence models specified by the choice of two potentials, namely the Recliner potential and what we call the broken exponential-law potential, which is a new proposal. Using a…
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 show that integrating out M2 branes ending on M5 branes inside Calabi-Yau manifolds captures non-perturbative open topological string physics. The integrating out is performed using a contour integral in complexified Schwinger proper…
We derive the scalar potential in zero mode effective action arising from a de Sitter brane embedded in five dimensions with bulk cosmological constant $\Lambda$. The scalar potential for a scalar field canonically normalized is given by…
We show how the motion through the extra dimensions of a gas of branes and antibranes can, under certain circumstances, produce an era of inflation as seen by observers trapped on a 3-brane, with the inflaton being the inter-brane…
These lectures present some topics of string phenomenology and contain two parts. In the first part, I review the possibility of lowering the string scale in the TeV region, that provides a theoretical framework for solving the mass…
Anthropic solutions to the cosmological constant problem require seemingly unnatural scalar field potentials with a very small slope or domain walls (branes) with a very small coupling to a four-form field. Here we introduce a class of…
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…
Arguably the simplest model of a cosmological singularity in string theory, the Lorentzian orbifold $\Real^{1,1}/boost$ is known to lead to severe divergences in scattering amplitudes of untwisted states, indicating a large backreaction…
A class of non-supersymmetric string backgrounds can be constructed using twists that involve space-time fermion parity. We propose a non-perturbative definition of string theory in these backgrounds via gauge theories with supersymmetry…
Chiral cosmic strings naturally arise in many particle physics models, in particular in supersymmetric theories with a D-term. These strings have a single fermion zero mode in the core. We derive the general equation of motion for such…
I review the relations between mass scales in various string theories and in M-theory. I discuss physical motivations and possible consistent realizations of large volume compactifications and low string scale. Large longitudinal…
We embed the supersymmetry breaking mechanism in N=1 SQCD of hep-th/0602239 in a smooth superstring theory using D-branes in the background R^4 \times SL(2)_{k=1}/U(1) which smoothly captures the throat region of an intersecting NS5-brane…
The predictions of the inflationary LCDM paradigm match today's high-precision measurements of the cosmic microwave background anisotropy extremely well. The same data put tight limits on other sources of anisotropy. Cosmic strings are a…
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,…