Related papers: String Regge trajectory in de Sitter space and imp…
Non-supersymmetric brane world scenarios in string theory display perturbative instabilities that usually involve run-away potentials for scalar moduli fields. We investigate in the framework of intersecting brane worlds whether the leading…
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…
A cosmic string network created during an inflationary stage in the early Universe - here defined as i-string network - is expected to enter a transient stretching regime during inflation, in which its characteristic length is stretched to…
Tribrid inflation is a class of supersymmetric inflation models where the scalar component of a matter superfield, or a $D$-flat direction of matter fields, drives inflation. Similar to Hybrid inflation, the end of inflation is reached when…
We study the problem of obtaining de Sitter and inflationary vacua from dimensional reduction of double field theory (DFT) on nongeometric string backgrounds. In this context, we consider a new class of effective potentials that admit…
According to common lore, massive elementary higher spin particles lead to inconsistencies when coupled to gravity. However, this scenario was not completely ruled out by previous arguments. In this paper, we show that in a theory where the…
This paper explores infrared quantum effects in the de Sitter space. The notion of "eternal manifolds" is introduced and it is shown that in most cases the de Sitter space doesn't belong to this class. It is unstable under small…
The ${\cal R}^2$ scale invariant gravity theory coupled to conformally invariant matter is investigated. We show that in the non-supersymmetric case the conformally coupled scalars belong to an $SO(1, 1+n)/SO(1+n)$ manifold, while in the…
We find four-dimensional de Sitter (dS) vacuum solutions on probe D-branes which nucleate in an asymptotically $\text{AdS}_5\times T^{1,1}$ background, including stringy corrections. A sufficiently high chemical potential induced by the…
Thermal inflation was proposed as a mechanism to dilute the density of cosmological moduli. Thermal inflation is driven by a complex scalar field possessing a large vacuum expectation value and a very flat potential, called a `flaton'. Such…
We study a class of tree-level ans\"atze for $2\to 2$ scalar and gauge boson amplitudes inspired by stringy UV completions. These amplitudes manifest Regge boundedness and are exponentially soft for fixed-angle high energy scattering, but…
We construct a string theory in three-dimensional anti-de Sitter space-time that is independent of the boundary metric. It is a topologically twisted theory of quantum gravity. We study string theories with an asymptotic N=2 superconformal…
String theory is arguably the best candidate for a theory of quantum gravity and unified interactions. Reconciling Einstein's theory of General Relativity with Quantum Mechanics. The theory however is best understood on Minkowski and…
The Higgs quartic coupling has now been indirectly measured at the electroweak scale. Assuming no new low-scale physics, its running is known and, together with gauge and Yukawa couplings, it is a crucial new piece of information…
Towards a classification of UV completable Higgs inflation in the framework of parity-even metric-affine gravity, we investigate the particle spectrum of a deformed theory in the large-$N$ limit. In a simple Higgs inflation model in…
Inflationary spacetimes have been argued to be past geodesically incomplete in many situations. However, whether the geodesic incompleteness implies the existence of an initial spacetime curvature singularity or whether the spacetime may be…
We explore the cosmological content of Salam-Sezgin six dimensional supergravity, and find a solution to the field equations in qualitative agreement with observation of distant supernovae, primordial nucleosynthesis abundances, and recent…
I elaborate on a link between the string--scale breaking of supersymmetry that occurs in a class of superstring models and the onset of inflation. The link rests on spatially flat cosmologies supported by a scalar field driven by an…
When Inflation is embedded in a fundamental theory, such as string theory, it typically begins when the Universe is already substantially larger than the fundamental scale [such as the one defined by the string length scale]. This is…
The relation between the Hubble constant and the scale of supersymmetry breaking is investigated in models of inflation dominated by a string modulus. Usually in this kind of models the gravitino mass is of the same order of magnitude as…