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We review the construction and phenomenology of intersecting brane worlds. The breaking of chiral and supersymmetry together with a reduction of gauge symmetry by introducing D-branes at generic angles into type I or type II string…
The success of SU(5)-like gauge coupling unification boundary conditions $g_3^2=g_2^2=5/3 g_1^2$ has biased most attempts to embed the SM interactions into a unified structure. After discussing the limitations of the orthodox approach, we…
We study string theory propagating on R^6 times K3 by constructing orientifolds of Type IIB string theory compactified on the T^4/Z_N orbifold limits of the K3 surface. This generalises the Z_2 case studied previously. The orientifold…
We investigate the field dependence of the gauge coupling functions of four-dimensional Type IIB orientifold and F-theory compactifications with space-time filling seven-branes. In particular, we analyze the constraints imposed by…
We consider de Sitter vacua realised in concrete type IIB Calabi-Yau compactifications with an anti D3-brane at the tip of a warped throat of Klebanov-Strassler type. The K\"ahler moduli are stabilised together with the complex structure…
We analyze D = 4 compactifications of Type IIB theory with generic, geometric and non-geometric, dual fluxes turned on. In particular, we study N = 1 toroidal orbifold compactifications that admit an embedding of the untwisted sector into…
We provide a general overview of the current state of the art in four dimensional three generation model building proposals - using intersecting D-brane toroidal compactifications [without fluxes] of IIA, IIB string theories - which have…
In this paper, a procedure is developed to construct compact F-theory fourfolds corresponding to perturbative IIB O7/O3 models on CICY threefolds with permutation involutions. The method is explained in generality, and then applied to…
We extend previous results on generalized calibrations to describe supersymmetric branes in supergravity backgrounds with diverse fields turned on, and provide several new classes of examples. As an important application, we show that…
We discuss the first step in the moduli stabilization program a la KKLT for a general class of resolved toroidal type IIB orientifolds. In particular, we discuss their geometry, the topology of the divisors relevant for the D3-brane…
The D-brane spectrum of a $\Zop_2\times\Zop_2$ Calabi-Yau three-fold orbifold of toroidally compactified Type IIA and Type IIB string theory is analysed systematically. The corresponding K-theory groups are determined and complete agreement…
A map between string junctions in the affine 7-brane backgrounds and vector bundles on del Pezzo surfaces is constructed using mirror symmetry. It is shown that the lattice of string junctions with support on an affine 7-brane configuration…
We obtain a family of supersymmetric solutions of type IIB supergravity with dynamic SU(2) structure, which describe the local geometry near a stack of four D7-branes and one O7-plane wrapping a rigid four-cycle. The deformation to a…
Soft supersymmetry breaking terms were recently derived for type IIB string flux compactifications with all moduli stabilised. Depending on the choice of the discrete input parameters of the compactification such as fluxes and ranks of…
We consider bound states of D-branes wrapped around cycles with non-trivial fundamental groups of finite order. We find a new mechanism for binding D-branes by turning on flat discrete abelian and non-abelian gauge fields on their…
Achieving full moduli stabilisation in type IIB string compactifications for generic Calabi-Yau threefolds with hundreds of K\"ahler moduli is notoriously hard. This is due not just to the very fast increase of the computational complexity…
We discuss string corrections to the effective potential in various models of brane inflation. These corrections contribute to the mass of the inflaton candidate and may improve its slow-roll properties. In particular, in orientifold string…
In this paper we analyze the structure of supersymmetric vacua in compactifications of the heterotic string on certain manifolds with SU(3) structure. We first study the effective theories obtained from compactifications on half-flat…
We study the superpotential induced by Euclidean D3-brane instantons carrying instanton flux, with special emphasis on its significance for the stabilisation of Kahler moduli and Neveu-Schwarz axions in Type IIB orientifolds. Quite…
We study the presence of discrete flavor symmetries in D-brane models of particle physics. By analyzing the compact extra dimensions of these models one can determine when such symmetries exist both in the context of intersecting and…