Related papers: Strings in compact cosmological spaces

Over the last few years, string theory has changed profoundly. Most importantly, novel duality relations have emerged which involve gauge theories of brane excitations on one side and various closed string backgrounds on the other. In this…

We study quantum strings in strong gravitational fields. The relevant small parameter is $g=R_c{\sqrt T_0}$, where $R_c$ is the curvature of the spacetime and $T_0$ is the string tension. Within our systematic expansion we obtain to zeroth…

We argue that traditional methods of compactification of string theory make it very difficult to understand how the cosmological constant becomes zero. String inspired models can give zero cosmological constant after fine tuning but since…

In this thesis time-dependent configurations are studied in the formalism of first-quantized string. These configurations are exact: solutions of the corresponding two-dimensional conformal field theory can be found. We can compute…

String theory provides the only consistent framework so far that unifies all interactions including gravity. We discuss gravity and cosmology in string theory. Conventional notions from general relativity like geometry, topology etc. are…

We study the perturbative unitarity of noncommutative scalar field theories. Field theories with space-time noncommutativity do not have a unitary S-matrix. Field theories with only space noncommutativity are perturbatively unitary. This…

Critical String Theory is by definition an $S$-matrix theory. In this sense, (quantum) gravity situations where a unitary $S$-matrix may not be a well-defined concept, as a consequence of the existence of macroscopic (global) or microscopic…

String theory is the prime candidate for the theory of everything. However, it must be defined in ten dimensions to be consistent. To get 4D physics, the 6 other dimensions should be curled up in a small compact manifold, this procedure is…

Well-defined non-perturbative formulations of the physics of string theories, sometimes with D-branes present, were identified over a decade ago, from a careful study of double scaled matrix models. Following recent work which recasts some…

The interplay between string theory and cosmology is very promising. Since string theory will yield a quantum theory of space-time and unify all forces of nature, it has the potential of addressing many of the conceptual problems of the…

The data of a "2D field theory with a closed string compactification" is an equivariant chain level action of a cell decomposition of the union of all moduli spaces of punctured Riemann surfaces with each component compactified as a…

Toroidal backgrounds for bosonic strings are used to understand target space duality as a symmetry of string field theory and to study explicitly issues in background independence. Our starting point is the notion that the string field…

1. Preliminaries. 2. Heterotic string and motivations for large volume compactifications; 2.1 Gauge coupling unification; 2.2 Supersymmetry breaking by compactification. 3. M-theory on S^1/Z_2 \times Calabi-Yau. 4. Type I/I' string theory…

Exact string solutions are presented, where moduli fields are varying with time. They provide examples where a dynamical change of the topology of space is occurring. Some other solutions give cosmological examples where some dimensions are…

Using standard techniques in string/D-brane scattering amplitude computations, we evaluate the scattering of open strings off D-particles in brane world scenarios. The D-particles are viewed as D3 branes wrapped up around three cycles, and…

Field theories based on non-commutative spacetimes exhibit very distinctive nonlocal effects which mix the ultraviolet with the infrared in bizarre ways. In particular if the time coordinate is involved in the non-commutativity the theory…

We derive the nonperturbative effect in type 0B string theory, which is defined by taking the double scaling limit of a one-matrix model with a two-cut eigenvalue distribution. However, the string equation thus derived cannot determine the…

This elementary introduction to string field theory highlights the features and the limitations of this approach to quantum gravity as it is currently understood. String field theory is a formulation of string theory as a field theory in…

This is a very brief survey of some results in the geometry of string duality delivered at a lecture given at ICM 1998, Berlin. String Duality is the statement that one kind of string theory compactified on one space is equivalent in some…

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…