Related papers: Branes and the Swampland
Thus far, the known wormholes in string theory connecting disjoint boundaries represented by finite volume quotients of hyperbolic spaces leak: they are non-perturbatively unstable towards brane-anti-brane nucleation in the flux backgrounds…
Redefining the vacuum state of a free two-fold $N=1$ covariant supersymmetric string action as the one with all the excited states of world-sheet fermions occupied, makes the theory anomaly free in (3+1)+4 dimensions. While in the $NS$…
The spectrum of stable electrically and magnetically charged supersymmetric particles can change discontinuously as one changes the vacuum on the Coulomb branch of gauge theories with extended supersymmetry in four dimensions. We show that…
We probe the effective worldvolume theory of a set of coinciding D-branes by switching on constant electro-magnetic fields on them. The comparison of the mass spectrum predicted by string theory with the mass spectrum obtained from the…
We look at the string theory dual of the $\N=1^*$ theory, involving 5--branes, which was recently proposed by Polchinski and Strassler \cite{PolStr}. We argue that SUGRA alone is not enough in order to obtain the correct screening and…
It has recently been argued that non--BPS brane world scenarios can reproduce the small value of the cosmological constant that seems to have been measured. Objections against this proposal are discussed and necessary (but not sufficient)…
We discuss general supersymmetric brane configurations in flux backgrounds of string and M-theory and derive a necessary condition for the worldvolume theory to be supersymmetric on a given curved manifold. This condition resembles very…
We investigate properties of several string networks in $D < 10$ which carry electric currents as well as electrostatic charge densities. We show the electric-current conservations as well as the force-balance condition of the string…
This article aims at drawing the attention of astronomers on the ability of future cosmological surveys to put constraints on string theory. The fact that "quantum gravity" might be constrained by large scale astrophysical observations is a…
We analyze various brane configurations corresponding to field theories in three, four and five dimensions. We find brane configurations which correspond to three dimensional N=2 and four dimensional N=1 supersymmetric QCD theories with…
We investigate the space of consistent tree-level extensions of the maximal supergravities in ten dimensions. We parametrize theory space by the first few EFT coefficients and by the on-shell coupling of the lightest massive state, and…
Four dimensional supergravities may be the right framework to describe particle physics at low energies. Its connection to the underlying string theory can be implemented through higher dimensional supergravities which bear special…
The recently proposed Swampland Cobordism Conjecture predicts the existence of new non-supersymmetric objects which supplement the spectrum of low-energy gravitational effective field theories. In this paper, we study a subset of these…
We consider string theory in a time dependent orbifold with a null singularity. The singularity separates a contracting universe from an expanding universe, thus constituting a big crunch followed by a big bang. We quantize the theory both…
Supersymmetry plays a main role in all current thinking about superstring theory. Indeed, many remarkable properties of string theory have been explained using supersymmetry as a tool. So far, there has been no unbroken supersymmetry…
The study of non-supersymmetric string theories is shedding light on an important corner of the string landscape and might ultimately explain why, so far, we did not observe supersymmetry in our universe. We review how misaligned…
We discuss brane webs preserving eight supercharges and derive geometries produced by them. Consistency conditions of supergravity are shown to impose certain requirements on the locations of the sources, and these restrictions are found to…
A review of recent progress in string theory concerning the Bekenstein formula for black hole entropy is given. Topics discussed include p-branes, D-branes and supersymmetry; the correspondence principle; the D- and M-brane approach to…
Heterotic string theory has nonsupersymmetric branes whose existence is suggested by the cobordism conjecture. We numerically construct static, spherically symmetric, and asymptotically flat black brane solutions in ten-dimensional…
We consider heterotic string theories in nine and eight dimensions. We identify the disconnected part of the spacetime gauge group by studying the outer automorphism of the charge lattices. The absence of the global symmetry indicates the…