Related papers: Nothing is certain in string compactifications
The gargantuan discrepancy between the value of the observed cosmological constant and that expected from the zero-point energy of known matter fields can be eliminated by supposing that on macroscopic scales the overwhelming majority of…
The Hilbert bundle for the massless fermions of the Schwinger model on a circle, over the space of gauge field configurations, is topologically non-trivial (twisted). The corresponding bundle for massive fermions is topologically trivial…
We demonstrate that field theories involving explicit breaking of continous symmetries, incorporate two generic classes of topological defects each of which is stable for a particular range of parameters. The first class includes defects of…
In this note, we present a scenario in which the existence of dS vacua is jeopardized by topological transitions between non-BPS branes and fluxes in type IIB toroidal compactifications. We focus our study on a six-dimensional torus…
We construct a generalization of Witten's Kaluza-Klein instanton, where a higher-dimensional sphere (rather than a circle as in Witten's instanton) collapses to zero size and the geometry terminates at a bubble of nothing, in a low energy…
In the first part of this paper we find supergravity solutions corresponding to branes on worldvolumes of the form $R^d \times \Sigma$ where $\Sigma$ is a Riemann surface. These theories arise when we wrap branes on holomorphic Riemann…
Lorentz-invariant expectation values for antisymmetric tensor field strengths in Calabi-Yau compactification of IIA string theory are considered. These are found to impart magnetic and/or electric charges to the dilaton hypermultiplet. This…
Compactified string theories give rise to discrete symmetries which are essential if they are to provide a realistic low energy theory. We find that in a class of four dimensional string theories these symmetries are constrained by similar…
We construct a new 2-parameter family of static topological solitons in 5D minimal supergravity which are endowed with magnetic charge and mass. The solitons are asymptotically ${\mathbb R}^4\times S^1$, where the radius of the $S^1$ has a…
We consider the formation of structured and massless particles with spin 1, by using the Yang-Mills like stochastic equations system for the group symmetry $SU(2)\otimes U(1)$ without taking into account the nonlinear term characterizing…
Scherk-Schwarz compactification in string theory can be defined as orbifolding by an R symmetry, a symmetry that acts differently on bosons and fermions. Such a symmetry can arise in many situations, including toroidal and orbifold…
Recently, Kim, Shiu and Vafa proposed general consistency conditions for six dimensional supergravity theories with minimal supersymmetry coming from couplings to strings. We test them in explicit perturbative orientifold models in order to…
We study topological lumps supported by the second homotopy group $\pi_2(S^2) \simeq {\mathbb Z}$ in a gauged $O(3)$ model without any potential term coupled with a (non)dynamical $U(1)$ gauge field. It is known that gauged-lumps are stable…
We describe a new family of thin-wall instantons, with negative tension bubble walls, that mediate tunneling between Minkowski or de Sitter vacua. Some of these instantons can have exponentially enhanced tunneling rates, and would dominate…
We consider theories of three dimensional quantum gravity in Anti-de Sitter space which possess massless higher-spin gauge symmetry. The perturbative spectrum of the theory includes higher spin excitations which can be organized into vacuum…
The weakly-coupled heterotic string is known to have problems of dilaton/moduli stabilization, supersymmetry breaking (by hidden-sector gaugino condensation), gauge coupling unification (or the Newton's constant), QCD axion, as well as…
The region of moduli space of string theories which is most likely to describe the "real world" is where the string coupling is about unity and the volume of extra compact dimensions is about the same size as the string volume. Here we map…
A novel quantum ground state of matter is realized in a bosonic model on three dimensional fcc lattice with emergent low energy excitations. The novel phase obtained is a stable gapless boson liquid phase, with algebraic boson density…
We review some aspects of the dramatic consequences of supersymmetry breaking on string vacua. In particular, we focus on the issue of vacuum stability in ten-dimensional string models with broken, or without, supersymmetry, whose…
For $n\geq 3$, let $M$ be an $(n+r)$-dimensional irreducible Hermitian symmetric space of compact type and let $\mathcal{O}_M(1)$ be the ample generator of $Pic(M)$. Let $Y=H_1\cap\dots\cap H_r$ be a smooth complete intersection of…