Related papers: Vacua Morghulis
In this paper, we present a series of supersymmetric models exhibiting an entirely new vacuum structure: towers of metastable vacua with higher and higher energies. As the number of vacua grows towards infinity, the energy of the highest…
It is shown how monopoles and dyons decay on curves of marginal stability in the moduli space of vacua at weak coupling in pure N=2 gauge theory with arbitrary gauge group. The analysis involves a semi-classical treatment of the monopole…
The suggestion that there exist causally disconnected universes or sub-universes to explain the values of physical parameters such as the cosmological constant is discussed. A statistical model of the string landscape/topography is…
We propose correspondences between 4d quantum field theories with N=2,1,0 (super)conformal invariance and Type IIB string theory on various orbifolds. We argue using the spacetime string theory, and check using the beta functions (exactly…
Metastable cosmic strings appear in models of new physics with a two-step symmetry breaking $G\to H\to 1$, where $\pi_1(H)\neq 0$ and $\pi_1(G)=0$. They decay via the monopole-antimonopole pair creation inside. Conventionally, the breaking…
We study supersymmetry breaking in metastable vacua on the Coulomb branch of perturbed N=2 gauge theories, with gauge group SU(2) and different matter content (N_f=0,2,4). The theory is deformed with a superpotential which is a cubic…
It has been shown that four dimensional N=2 gauge theories, softly broken to N=1 by a superpotential term, can accommodate metastable non-supersymmetric vacua in their moduli space. We study the SU(2) theory at high temperatures in order to…
We suggest that compactifications on Anti-de-Sitter (AdS) spaces of type IIA, IIB, heterotic strings and eleven dimensional vacuua of M-theory are related by a combination of $T$ and strong/weak dualities. Maldacena conjecture relates then…
String geometry theory is one of the candidates of the non-perturbative formulation of string theory. In this paper, in the bosonic closed sector of string geometry theory, we completely identify the perturbative vacua, which include…
It is shown that the so-called $\alpha$-vacua which have been proposed as candidates for states of free quantum fields on de Sitter space have infinitely strong fluctuations for typical observables as averaged renormalized energy momentum…
The theta dependent of pure gauge theories in four dimensions can be studied using a duality of large N gauge theories with string theory on a certain spacetime. Via this duality, one can argue that for every theta, there are infinitely…
It is shown that non-supersymmetric spacetime varying string vacua can lead to an exponential hierarchy between the electroweak and the gravitational scales. The hierarchy is naturally generated by a string coupling of O(1).
While the number of metastable landscape vacua in string theory is vast, the number of supermoduli vacua which lead to distinct low energy physics is even larger, perhaps infinitely so. From the anthropic perspective it is therefore…
The moduli of N=1 compactifications of IIB string theory can be stabilized by a combination of fluxes (which freeze complex structure moduli and the dilaton) and nonperturbative superpotentials (which freeze Kahler moduli), typically…
We apply the techniques of the ``universal string theory'' to the ``manifold'' paradigm for superstring/M-theory and come up with a candidate manifold: the manifold of F-theory vacua, defined in conformal field theoretical terms. It…
It has been pointed out that cosmic string solutions can exist in gauge field theories with broken symmetry even when $\pi _1(G/H)$ is trivial. The stability of such semilocal defects is not guaranteed by topology and depends on dynamical…
We find de Sitter and flat space solutions with all moduli stabilized in four dimensional supergravity theories derived from the heterotic and type II string theories, and explain how all the previously known obstacles to finding such…
Recently it has been conjectured that string theory does not allow for dS vacua or dS extrema. To scrutinize such a conjecture, it is important to study concrete string theory compactifications and spell out their assumptions and potential…
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…
Witten long ago pointed out that the simplest Kaluza-Klein theory, without supersymmetry, is subject to a catastrophic instability. There are a variety of string theories which are potentially subject to these instabilities. Here we explore…