Related papers: String Thresholds, Dynamical Gauss--Bonnet Couplin…
We present a simple toy model corresponding to a network of frustrated topological defects of domain walls or cosmic strings that exist previous to the standard slow-roll inflationary era of the universe. Such a network (i) can produce a…
We find a general model of {\em single-field} inflation within the context of type IIB string theory compactified on large volume Calabi-Yau orientifolds with $h^{2,1} > h^{1,1} = 2$. The inflaton is the axion part of the complexified…
We study compactifications of type IIA string theory on Calabi-Yau manifolds that are mirror to a subset of the type IIB LARGE-volume models. A combination of flux, alpha' corrections and non-perturbative effects stabilises the moduli in a…
We study moduli stabilization by thermal effects in the cosmological context. The implementation of finite temperature, which spontaneously breaks supersymmetry, induces an effective potential at one loop level. At the points where extra…
We present a simple mechanism for obtaining large-field inflation, and hence a gravitational wave signature, from string theory compactified on twisted tori. For Nil manifolds, we obtain a leading inflationary potential proportional to…
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…
We study an effective four-dimensional theory with an action with two scalar fields minimally coupled to gravity, and with a matter action which couples to the two scalar fields via an overall field-dependent coefficient in the action. Such…
Following a suggestion by Gasperini and Veneziano, that String Cosmology can be reconciled with Inflation and, hence, with the Standard Big Bang, we display an analytical solution which possesses four interesting properties: (1) it is…
The eta problem is one of the most significant obstacles to building a successful inflationary model in string theory. Planck mass suppressed corrections to the inflaton potential generally lead to inflaton masses of order the Hubble scale…
We study a minimal two-field scalar-tensor completion of Starobinsky inflation motivated by the one-loop effective action of scalar-tensor gravity. The model admits an exact Starobinsky branch, but the relevant question is whether nearby…
In this thesis, consisting of two main parts, we study observational signatures of cosmic (super)strings in the context of D-brane inflation and properties of scalar perturbations on generic homogeneous inflating backgrounds. In the first…
We present an explicit embedding of axionic N-flation in type IIB string compactifications where most of the Kahler moduli are stabilised by perturbative effects, and so are hierarchically heavier than the corresponding N >> 1 axions whose…
In presence of a static pair of sources, the spectrum of low-lying states of whatever confining gauge theory in D space-time dimensions is described, at large source separations, by an effective string theory. In the far infrared the latter…
The recent measurements of cosmological parameters by the Planck collaboration favors inflationary models with a redshifted spectrum and a very low tensor-to-scalar ratio. Two well-studied scenarios in the particle physics/string theory…
We elaborate on integrable dynamical systems from scalar-gravity Lagrangians that include the leading dilaton tadpole potentials of broken supersymmetry. In the static Dudas-Mourad compactifications from ten to nine dimensions, which rest…
In a cosmological context, the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory contains, in $d+4$ dimensions, a dynamical compactification scenario in which the additional dimensions settle down to a configuration with a constant radion/scale factor. Sadly…
A characteristic signature of String Gas Cosmology is primordial power spectra for scalar and tensor modes which are almost scale-invariant but with a red tilt for scalar modes but a blue tilt for tensor modes. This feature, however, can…
We propose a mechanism for the natural inflation with and without modulation in the framework of type IIB string theory on toroidal orientifold or orbifold. We explicitly construct the stabilization potential of complex structure, dilaton…
We consider the effects of a gas of closed strings (treated quantum mechanically) on a background where one dimension is compactified on a circle. After we address the effects of a time dependent background on aspects of the string spectrum…
We propose a mechanism for the creation of cosmic string loops with dynamically stabilised windings in the internal space. Assuming a velocity correlations regime in the post-inflationary epoch, such windings are seen to arise naturally in…