Related papers: Gauging Away a Big Bang
Gauge symmetries are often highlighted as a fundamental cornerstone of modern physics. But at the same time, it is commonly emphasized that gauge symmetries are not a fundamental feature of nature but merely redundancies in our description.…
In this paper we discuss symmetry breaking in string theory. Spacetime symmetries are implemented as inner automorphisms of the underlying superconformal algebra. Conserved currents generate unbroken spacetime symmetries. As we deform the…
If the graviton possesses an arbitrarily small (but nonvanishing) mass, perturbation theory implies that cosmic strings have a nonzero Newtonian potential. Nevertheless in Einstein gravity, where the graviton is strictly massless, the…
In this paper we present a framework in which the relational description of General Relativity can be used to smoothly continue cosmological dynamical systems through the Big Bang without invoking quantum gravity effects. Cosmological…
Non-invertible symmetries in quantum field theory (QFT) generalize the familiar product rule of groups to a more general fusion rule. In many cases, gauged versions of these symmetries can be regarded as dual descriptions of invertible…
The personal and scientific history of the discovery of spontaneous symmetry breaking in gauge theories is outlined and its scientific content is reviewed
We critically assess the twin prospects of describing the observed universe in string theory, and using cosmological experiments to probe string theory. For the purposes of this short review, we focus on the limitations imposed by our…
Amidst all candidates of physics beyond the Standard Model, string theory provides a unique proposal for incorporating gauge and gravitational interactions. In string theory, a four-dimensional theory that unifies quantum mechanics and…
String theory relies on spacetime supersymmetry to guarantee the existence of stable vacua. In this review, we survey two features of non-supersymmetric strings that challenge both aspects: the appearance of tachyons and worldsheet…
We present an overview of the intimate relationship between string and D-brane dynamics, and the dynamics of gauge and gravitational fields in three spacetime dimensions. The successes, prospects and open problems in describing both…
Within two specific string cosmology scenarios --differing in the way the pre- and post-big bang phases are joined-- we compute the size and spectral slope of various types of cosmologically amplified quantum fluctuations that arise in…
We investigate the behavior of the entanglement entropy of a confining gauge theory near cosmological singularities using gauge/gravity duality. As expected, the coefficients of the UV divergent terms are given by simple geometric…
The role of instantons in describing non-perturbative aspects of globally supersymmetric gauge theories is reviewed. The cases of theories with N=1, N=2 and N=4 supersymmetry are discussed. Special attention is devoted to the intriguing…
We consider a formalism to describe the false-vacuum decay of a scalar field in gauge theories in non-perturbative regimes. We find that the larger the gauge coupling with respect to the self-coupling of the scalar, the shallower the local…
Cosmic strings provide a radically different paradigm for the formation of structure to the prevailing inflationary one. They afford some extra technical complications: for example, the calculation of the power spectrum of matter and…
In this paper we present well-posedness results of the wave equation in $H^{1}$ for spacetimes that contain string-like singularities. These results extend a framework able to characterise gravitational singularities as obstruction to the…
In string gas cosmology, extra dimensions are stabilised by a gas of strings. In the matter-dominated era, competition between matter pushing the extra dimensions to expand and the string gas pulling them back can lead to oscillations of…
In this paper, based on the gauge potential decomposition and the $\phi-$mapping theories, we study the topological structures and properties of the cosmic strings that arise in the Abelian-Higgs gauge theory in the zero-thickness limit.…
We consider a picture in which the transition from a big crunch to a big bang corresponds to the collision of two empty orbifold planes approaching each other at a constant non-relativistic speed in a locally flat background space-time, a…
Cosmic (super)strings offer promising ways to test ideas about the early universe and physics at high energies. While in field theory constructions their tension is usually assumed to be constant (or at most slowly-varying), this is often…