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We investigate membrane instanton effects in type IIA strings compactified on rigid Calabi-Yau manifolds. These effects contribute to the low-energy effective action of the universal hypermultiplet. In the absence of additional fivebrane…
We study the properties of walls of marginal stability for BPS decays in a class of N=2 theories. These theories arise in N=2 string compactifications obtained as freely acting orbifolds of N=4 theories, such theories include the STU model…
These lectures are devoted to introducing some of the basic features of quantum geometry that have been emerging from compactified string theory over the last couple of years. The developments discussed include new geometric features of…
If $X$ and $Y$ are a mirror pair of Calabi--Yau threefolds, mirror symmetry should extend to an isomorphism between the type IIA string theory compactified on $X$ and the type IIB string theory compactified on $Y$, with all nonperturbative…
We study string loop corrections to the gravity kinetic terms in type IIB compactifications on Calabi-Yau threefolds or their orbifold limits, in the presence of $D7$-branes and orientifold planes. We show that they exhibit in general a…
We analyse the scalar curvature of the vector multiplet moduli space $\mathcal{M}^{\rm VM}_X$ of type IIA string theory compactified on a Calabi--Yau manifold $X$. While the volume of $\mathcal{M}^{\rm VM}_X$ is known to be finite, cases…
We explore the possibility that (Bose-Einstein) condensation of scalar fields from string compactifications can lead to long-lived compact objects. Depending on the type of scalar fields we find different realisations of star-like and…
Type II string theory compactified on a Calabi-Yau manifold, with a singularity modeled by a hypersurface in an orbifold, is considered. In the limit of vanishing string coupling, one expects a non gravitational theory concentrated at the…
A QCD axion with a time-dependent decay constant has been known to be able to accommodate high-scale inflation without producing topological defects or too large isocurvature perturbations on CMB scales. We point out that a dynamical decay…
Recent investigations involving the decay of unstable D-branes in string theory suggest that the tree level open string theory which describes the dynamics of the D-brane already knows about the closed string states produced in the decay of…
These are notes based on lectures given at TASI99. We review the geometry of the moduli space of N=2 theories in four dimensions from the point of view of superstring compactification. The cases of a type IIA or type IIB string compactified…
The model independent axion of string theory has a decay constant of order of the Planck scale. We explore the properties of this quintessence candidate (quintaxion) in the scheme of hidden sector supergravity breakdown. In models allowing…
By analyzing qualitative aspects of NS5-brane instanton corrections, we determine the topology of the hypermultiplet moduli space M_H in Calabi-Yau compactifications of type II string theories at fixed value of the dilaton and of the…
We study infinite-distance limits in the moduli space of perturbative string vacua. The remarkable interplay of string dualities seems to determine a highly non-trivial dichotomy, summarized by the emergent string conjecture, by which in…
We discuss perturbative four-dimensional compactifications of both the SO(32) heterotic and the Type I string on smooth Calabi-Yau manifolds endowed with general non-abelian and abelian bundles. We analyse the generalized Green-Schwarz…
We discuss the appearance at the QCD phase transition, and the subsequent decay, of axion walls bounded by strings in N=1 axion models. We argue on intuitive grounds that the main decay mechanism is into barely relativistic axions. We…
We consider alpha'-corrections to Calabi-Yau compactifications of type II string theory. These were discussed from the string worldsheet approach many years ago in terms of supersymmetric non-linear sigma-models by Nemeschansky and Sen as…
We point out that the moduli sector of the $(2,2)$ string compactification with its nonperturbatively preserved non-compact symmetries is a framework to study global topological defects. Based on the target space modular invariance of the…
We study the minimal requirements to obtain axion strings for axions with exponentially good quality. These ingredients appear in theories where an axion coming from a higher-form gauge field mixes with the phase of a complex scalar field…
The tadpole conjecture suggests that the complete stabilization of complex structure deformations in Type IIB and F-theory flux compactifications is severely obstructed by the tadpole bound on the fluxes. More precisely, it states that the…