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We review the recent developments in superstrings. We start with a brief summary of various consistent superstring theories and discuss T-duality which necessarily leads to the presence of D-branes. The properties of D-branes are summarized…
We describe exact cosmological solutions with rotation and expansion in the low-energy effective string theory. These models are spatially homogeneous (closed Bianchi type IX) and they belong to the family of shear-free metrics which are…
In this thesis we investigate the microphysics of cosmic strings in non-minimal quantum field theories. In particular we consider theories in which fermion fields couple to the strings, and those with larger symmetry groups, such as grand…
We review physical motivations, phenomenological consequences, and open problems of the so-called pre-big bang scenario in superstring cosmology.
After briefly reviewing basic concepts of perturbative string theory, we explain in simple terms some of the new findings that created excitement among the string physicists. These developments include non-perturbative dualities and a…
We study string propagation in a spacetime with positive cosmological constant, which includes a circle whose radius approaches a finite value as |t|\to\infty, and goes to zero at t=0. Near this cosmological singularity, the spacetime looks…
In spite of its great phenomenological success, current models of scalar field-driven inflation suffer from important unresolved conceptual issues. New fundamental physics will be required to address these questions. String theory is a…
We consider some questions of naturalness which arise when one considers conventional field theories in the presence of gravitation: the problem of global symmetries, the strong CP problem, and the cosmological constant problem. Using…
We present a new set of analytic solutions of general relativity with a negative cosmological constant, which describe black strings and black p-branes in arbitrary number of dimensions, $D$. The solutions are supported by minimally…
We review some recent developments in string theory, emphasizing the importance of vacuum instabilities, their relation to the density of states, and the role of space-time fermions in non-critical string theory. We also discuss the…
We consider different aspects of the problem of cosmological singularity such as the BKL oscillatory approach to singularity, the new features of the cosmological dynamics in the neighbourhood of the singularity in multidimensional and…
We will show how the study of randomly triangulated surfaces merges with the study of open/closed string dualities. In particular we will discuss the Conformal Field Theory which arises in the open string sector and its implications.
We introduce a very early universe model based on the thermodynamics of a gas of closed strings in a background which is non-perturbative in $\alpha'$. Upon considering the fully $\alpha'$-corrected equations extended to include certain…
A very brief review is given of some of the developments leading to our current understanding of black holes in string theory. This is followed by a discussion of two possible misconceptions in this subject - one involving the stability of…
Macroscopic fundamental and Dirichlet strings have several potential instabilities: breakage, tachyon decays, and confinement by axion domain walls. We investigate the conditions under which metastable strings can exist, and we find that…
In this thesis we investigate topological aspects and arithmetic structures in quantum field theory and string theory. Particular focus is put on consistent truncations of supergravity and compactifications of F-theory.
String theory is at the moment the only advanced approach to a unification of all interactions, including gravity. But, in spite of the more than thirty years of its existence, it does not make any empirically testable predictions, and it…
A general framework for studying a large class of cosmological solutions of the low-energy limit of type II string theory and of M-theory, with non-trivial Ramond form fields excited, is presented. The framework is applicable to spacetimes…
We describe the detailed study and results of high-resolution numerical simulations of string-induced structure formation in open universes and those with a non-zero cosmological constant. The effect from small loops generated from the…
We study the effect of higher-curvature terms in the string low-energy effective actions on the cosmological solutions of the theory, up to corrections quartic in the curvatures, for the bosonic and heterotic strings as well as the type II…