Related papers: Implication of the Superstring theory on Astrophys…
The pressureless tachyonic matter recently found in superstring field theory has an over-abundance problem in cosmology. We argue that this problem is naturally solved in the brane inflationary scenario if almost all of the tachyon energy…
Previous results on trans-Planckian collisions in superstring theory are rewritten in terms of an explicitly unitary S-matrix whose range of validity covers a large region of the energy/impact-parameter plane. Amusingly, as part of this…
A review is given of the implications of supersymmetric black holes for the non-perturbative formulation of toroidally compactified superstrings, with particular emphasis on symmetry enhancement at special vacua and S-duality of the…
We consider string inspired models in $D=10$ spacetime dimensions, which include couplings with 1- and 3-form fields as well as $R^4$ higher curvature corrections to the gravitational action. For such models, we explicitly construct a…
We argue that the light particles in string theory obey an effective quantum mechanics modified by the inclusion of a quantum-gravitational friction term, induced by unavoidable couplings to unobserved massive string states in the…
New Planck scale physics may solve the singularity problems of classical general relativity and may lead to interesting consequences for very early Universe cosmology. Two approaches to these questions are reviewed in this article. The…
Cosmic superstrings are introduced to non-experts. First D-branes and $(p,q)$ strings are discussed. Then we explain how tachyon condensation in the early universe may have produced F, D and $(p,q)$ strings. Warped geometries which can…
We investigate a static, cylindrically symmetric cosmic string on the brane without a perturbative approximation. We find there could be a (large) enhancement of the (effective) string tension when the energy density at the center of the…
If the graviton possesses an arbitrarily small (but nonvanishing) mass, perturbation theory implies that cosmic strings have a nonzero Newtonian potential. Nevertheless in Einstein gravity, where the graviton is strictly massless, the…
We construct and analyze D-branes in superstring theories in even dimensions less than ten. The backgrounds under study are supersymmetric R^{d-1,1} \times SL(2,R)_k / U(1) where the level of the supercoset is tuned such as to provide bona…
In cosmological scenarios based on grand unification, string theory or braneworlds, many kinds of topological or non-topological defects, including monopoles and cosmic strings, are predicted to be formed in the early universe. Here we…
We review the status of the fourth-order (quartic in the spacetime curvature) terms induced by superstrings/M-theory (compactified on a warped torus) in the leading order with respect to the Regge slope parameter, and study their…
Motivated by astrophysical observations of excess electronic production in the galaxy, new theoretical models of the dark matter sector have been proposed in which the Standard model couples to the dark matter sector through an attractive…
We review recent efforts to construct gravitational theories on discrete space-times, usually referred to as the ``consistent discretization'' approach. The resulting theories are free of constraints at the canonical level and therefore…
We review recent developments concerning supersymmetric black holes in string theory. After a general introduction to the laws of black hole mechanics and to black hole entropy in string theory, we discuss black hole solutions in N=2…
We study supersymmetry breaking by Scherk-Schwarz compactifications in type I string theory. While in the gravitational sector all mass splittings are proportional to a (large) compactification radius, supersymmetry remains unbroken for the…
We investigate open string theory on backreacting D3-branes using a spacetime approach. We study in detail the half-BPS supergravity solutions describing open strings ending on D3-branes, in the near horizon of the D3-branes. We recover…
We review some aspects of moduli in string theory. We argue that one should focus on {\it approximate moduli spaces}, and that there is evidence that such spaces exist non-perturbatively. We ask what it would mean for string theory to…
We perform a systematic analysis of the D-brane charges associated with string theory realizations of d=3 gauge theories, focusing on the examples of the N=4 supersymmetric U(N)xU(N+M) Yang-Mills theory and the N=3 supersymmetric…
We consider a low energy effective theory of $p$-branes in a $D$-dimensional spacetime, and impose two conditions: 1) the theory is scale invariant, and 2) the electric-magnetic dual $(D-p-4)$-branes exist and they obey the same type of…