Related papers: Conifolds and Tunneling in the String Landscape
We compute tunneling in a quantum field theory in 1+1 dimensions for a field potential $U(\Phi)$ of the asymmetric double well type. The system is localized initially in the ``false vacuum''. We consider the case of a {\em compact space}…
We investigate the instanton effect due to D3 branes wrapping a four-cycle in a Calabi-Yau orientifold with D7 branes. We study the condition for the nonzero superpotentials from the D3 instantons. For that matter we work out the zero mode…
This paper is a detailed study of a class of isolated Gorenstein threefold singularities, called hyperconifolds, that are finite quotients of the conifold. First, it is shown that hyperconifold singularities arise naturally in limits of…
It is well known that there are a great many apparently consistent vacua of string theory. We draw attention to the fact that there appear to be very few Calabi--Yau manifolds with the Hodge numbers h^{11} and h^{21} both small. Of these,…
Based on the correspondence between the N = 1 superstring compactifications with fluxes and the N = 4 gauged supergravities, we study effective N = 1 four-dimensional supergravity potentials arising from fluxes and gaugino condensates in…
We use path-integrals to derive a general expression for the semiclassical approximation to the partition function of a one-dimensional quantum-mechanical system. Our expression depends solely on ordinary integrals which involve the…
It has recently been appreciated that the conifold modulus plays an important role in string-phenomenological set-ups involving warped throats, both by imposing constraints on model building and for obtaining a 10-dimensional picture of…
In this work we study the generalization of twisted homology to geometric and non-geometric backgrounds. In the process we describe the necessary conditions to wrap a network of D-branes on twisted cycles. If the cycle is localized in time,…
We study four-dimensional heterotic flux vacua with N=2 spacetime supersymmetry. A worldsheet perspective is used to clarify quantization conditions associated to the fluxes and the constraints these place on the moduli spaces of resulting…
We discuss the vacuum structure of type IIA/B Calabi-Yau string compactifications to four dimensions in the presence of n-form H-fluxes. These will lift the vacuum degeneracy in the Calabi-Yau moduli space, and for generic points in the…
We investigate the possibility that spiral inflation can be realized using the near-conifold flux potentials for the complex structure moduli in type IIB string theory compactified on a Calabi-Yau manifold. Using the explicit form of the…
The presence of RR and NS three-form fluxes in type IIB string compactification on a Calabi-Yau orientifold gives rise to a nontrivial superpotential W for the dilaton and complex structure moduli. This superpotential is computable in terms…
We present a vast landscape of O3/O7 orientifolds that descends from the famous set of complete intersection Calabi-Yau threefolds (CICY). We give distributions of topological data relevant for phenomenology such as the orientifold-odd…
I review type IIB string compactifications in which the three-form field strengths satisfy a self-duality condition on the internal manifold. I begin with an overview of the models, giving preliminary formulae and several points of view…
We study the structure of string theory flux compactification for a general family of elliptic CY 3-folds. We investigate the locus of the attractor points of the flux compactification in type IIB string theory on the boundary components of…
We study the dynamics of electric flux discharge by charged particle pair or spherical string or membrane production in various dimensions. When electric flux wraps at least one compact cycle, we find that a single "pair" production event…
In this review article we study type IIB superstring compactifications in the presence of space-time filling D-branes while preserving N=1 supersymmetry in the effective four-dimensional theory. This amount of unbroken supersymmetry and the…
We consider a Morse function $f$ and a Morse-Smale gradient-like vector field $X$ on a compact connected oriented 3-manifold $M$ such that $f$ has only one critical point of index 3. Based on Laudenbach's ideas, we will show that the flow…
We argue that a generic instability afflicts vacua that arise in theories whose moduli space has large dimension. Specifically, by studying theories with multiple scalar fields we provide numerical evidence that for a generic local minimum…
We consider correlator of two concentric Wilson loops, a small and large ones related to the problem of flux-tube formation. There are three mechanisms which can contribute to the connected correlator and yield different dependences on the…