Related papers: On the boundedness of effective potentials arising…
Type IIB strings compactified on K3 have a rich structure of solitonic strings, transforming under SO(21,5,Z). We derive the BPS tension formula for these strings, and discuss their properties, in particular, the points in the moduli space…
We compute the potential for localized closed string tachyons in bosonic string theory on the orbifold C/Z_4 using level-truncated closed string field theory. The critical points of the potential exhibit features which agree with their…
In this review articel we study the gaugings of extended supergravity theories in various space-time dimensions. These theories describe the low-energy limit of non-trivial string compactifications. For each theory under consideration we…
We argue that the finiteness of quantum gravity amplitudes in fully compactified theories (at least in supersymmetric cases) leads to a bottom-up prediction for the existence of non-trivial dualities. In particular, finiteness requires the…
String theory, if it describes nature, is probably strongly coupled. In light of recent developments in string duality, this means that the ``real world'' should correspond to a region of the classical moduli space which admits no weak…
In this paper, which is a revised version of the author's PhD thesis, we analyze two different applications of string theory. In the first part, we focus on four dimensional compactifications of Type II string theories preserving N=1…
We review the main results of our investigations motivated by the tadpole potentials of ten-dimensional strings with broken supersymmetry. While these are at best partial indications, it is hard to resist the feeling that they do capture…
This Ph.D. thesis investigates effective field and string theories in which supersymmetry is realized and broken in various ways. Chapter 1 addresses effective theories with nonlinearly realized supersymmetry, constructed using the…
The space-time dimensions transverse to a static straight cosmic string with a sufficiently large tension (supermassive cosmic strings) are compact and typically have a singularity at a finite distance form the core. In this paper, we…
We consider the possibility that the unification of the electroweak interactions and the strong force arises from string theory, at energies significantly lower than the string scale. As a tool, an effective grand unified field theory in…
The complete expression of the heavy quark-antiquark potential up to order $1/m^2$ is known from QCD in terms of Wilson loop expectation values. We use that expression and a mapping, assumed to be valid at large distances, between Wilson…
We argue that effective actions for warped compactifications can be subtle, with large deviations in the effective potential from naive expectations owing to constraint equations from the higher-dimensional metric. We demonstrate this…
This paper investigates the relationships between closed and mixed string amplitudes at the tree level in string theory. Through the analytic continuation of complex variables, we establish a factorization of closed string amplitudes into…
The high-energy limit of stringy symmetries, derived from the decoupling of two types of zero-norm states in the old covariant first quantized (OCFQ) spectrum of open bosonic string, are used to reproduce Gross's linear relations among…
We compute numerically the effective potential for the $(\lambda \Phi^4)_4$ theory on the lattice. Three different methods were used to determine the critical bare mass for the chosen bare coupling value. Two different methods for obtaining…
In this work, we study a class of higher derivative couplings in the string effective action arising at the junction of topological string theory and supersymmetric gauge theories in the $\Omega$-background. They generalise a series of…
If nature is described by string theory, and if the compactification radius is large (as suggested by the unification of couplings), then the theory is in a regime best described by the low energy limit of $M$-theory. We discuss some…
We consider compactifications of ${\cal M}$-theory to four-dimensional Minkowski space on seven-dimensional non-compact manifolds. These compactifications include a warp factor which is non-constant due to the presence of sources coming…
An analysis of a special class of type II string theory compactifications is presented. We focus on recent work in one particular orientifold background of intersecting brane models and the resulting four dimensional gauge group and matter…
The implications of string theory for understanding the dimension of decompactified spacetime are discussed. Results from a computer model designed to simulate expansion of the early universe during the string dominated phase are presented.…