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Scattering of fundamental states of type IIB supergravity and superstring theory is discussed at low orders in perturbation theory in the background of a D-instanton. The integration over fermionic zero modes in both the low energy…
We argue that the observed UV finiteness of the 3-loop extended supergravities may be a manifestation of a hidden local superconformal symmetry of supergravity. We focus on the SU(2,2|4) dimensionless superconformal model. In Poincare gauge…
We consider examples of D=4 string theory vacua which, although globally non-geometric, admit a local description in terms of D=10 supergravity backgrounds. We analyze such backgrounds and find that the supersymmetry spinors vary…
We study one-loop quantum corrections to gauge couplings in heterotic vacua with spontaneous supersymmetry breaking. Although in non-supersymmetric constructions these corrections are not protected and are typically model dependent, we show…
We construct D=4 Type I vacua with massless content remarkably close to that of the standard model of particle physics. They are tachyon-free non-supersymmetric models which are obtained starting with a standard D=4, N=1 compact Type IIB…
We review the theory and phenomenology of effective supergravity theories based on orbifold compactifications of the weakly-coupled heterotic string. In particular, we consider theories in which the four-dimensional theory displays target…
In global supersymmetric Wess-Zumino models with minimal K\"ahler potentials, F-type supersymmetry breaking always yields instability or continuous degeneracy of non-supersymmetric vacua. As a generalization of the original O'Raifeartaigh's…
We consider type II string theory compactified on a symmetric T^6/Z_2 orientifold. We study a general class of discrete deformations of the resulting four-dimensional supergravity theory, including gaugings arising from geometric and…
Four-dimensional (4D) simplicial quantum gravity coupled to U(1) gauge fields has been studied using Monte-Carlo simulations. A negative string susceptibility exponent is observed beyond the phase-transition point, even if the number of…
Superstring flux compactifications can stabilize all moduli while leading to an enormous number of vacua solutions, each leading to different $4-d$ laws of physics. While the string landscape provides at present the only plausible…
We consider massive type IIA orientifold compactifications of the form AdS$_4 \times X_6$, where $X_6$ admits a Calabi-Yau metric and is threaded by background fluxes. From a 4d viewpoint, fluxes generate a potential whose vacua have been…
The classical-dS scenario in the type II string theories proposes to search for dS vacua of orientifold flux compactifications in a regime where string corrections to the compactified effective field theory are negligible. We study a…
The first part of this review tries to provide a self-contained view of supersymmetry breaking from the bottom-up perspective. We thus describe N=1 supersymmetry in four dimensions, the Standard Model and the MSSM, with emphasis on the…
Motivated by the recently proposed bounds on the slow-roll parameters for scalar potentials arising from string/M-theory compactifications, a.k.a. the Refined de Sitter Swampland conjecture, we explore the sharpness of such constraints…
The issue of the existence and possible triviality of the Euclidean quantum scalar field in dimension 4 is investigated by using some large deviations techniques. As usual, the field $\varphi_{d}^{4}$ is obtained as a limit of regularized…
Stable non-supersymmetric Anti-de Sitter (AdS) vacua of string theory are widely believed not to exist. In this letter, we analytically compute the full bosonic Kaluza-Klein spectrum around the ${\rm G_2}$-invariant non-supersymmetric…
Effective field theories (EFTs) provide a powerful framework to parametrise unknown aspects of possible ultraviolet (UV) physics. For scalar fields in de Sitter space, however, new emergent phenomena can arise when the cut-off scale of the…
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…
Supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric deformations of large $N=(4,4)$ SCFT with superconformal symmetry $D^1(2,1;\alpha)\times D^1(2,1;\alpha)$ are explored in the gravity dual described by a Chern-Simons $N=8$, $(SO(4)\times SO(4))\ltimes…
Conformal symmetry always played an important role in field theory (both quantum and classical) and in gravity. We present construction of quantum conformal gravity and discuss its features regarding scattering amplitudes and quantum…