Related papers: On String Vacua without Supersymmetry: brane dynam…
The non-perturbative dynamics of quantum field theories is studied using theoretical tools inspired by string formalism. Two main lines are developed: the analysis of stringy instantons in a class of four-dimensional N=2 gauge theories and…
We consider supersymmetric QCD in the free magnetic phase with massless and massive flavors. The theory has a supersymmetry breaking pseudo-moduli space of vacua and a runaway behavior far away from the origin. A two-loop computation…
We investigate codimension-one vacua arising from low energy effective actions inspired by string theory, with an eye to their consistency when localized sources are allowed in the equations of motion. We draw some inspiration from…
Static and inflating brane world models are considered in $4+n$-dimensions with a non zero bulk cosmological constant and with a hyper-spherically symmetric topological defect residing in the $n$ extra dimensions. Several vacuum solutions…
Talk given at the 26th Workshop: ``From Superstrings to Supergravity" Erice - Sicily, 5-12 December 1992: In this talk we discuss string consistency requirements on four dimensional string models, namely the cancellation of target space…
We investigate maximally symmetric backgrounds in nonsupersymmetric string vacua with D-branes and O-planes localized in the compact space. We find a class of solutions with a perturbative string coupling constant in all regions of…
In the first lecture, we derive the five-dimensional effective action of strongly coupled heterotic string theory for the complete (1,1) sector of the theory by performing a reduction, on a Calabi-Yau three-fold, of M-theory on S1/Z2. The…
We begin by reviewing the results on the decay of unstable D-branes in type II string theory, and the open-closed string duality proposal that arises from these studies. We then apply this proposal to the study of tachyon driven cosmology,…
We examine, in the context of certain string compactifications resulting in five dimensional brane worlds the mechanisms of (self) tuning of the cosmological constant and the recovery of standard cosmological evolution. We show that self…
We consider tachyon condensation in unstable ten-dimensional heterotic string theory with gauge group E8. In the background of a lightlike linear dilaton rolling to weak coupling, we find an exact solution in which the theory decays to a…
The tachyonic instability of the open bosonic string is analyzed using the level truncation approach to string field theory. We have calculated all terms in the cubic action of the string field theory describing zero-momentum interactions…
In this thesis we study the dynamics of higher-dimensional gravity in a universe emerging from a brane collision. We develop a set of powerful analytic methods which, we believe, render braneworld cosmological perturbation theory solvable.…
Recent work has made clear that we have far more control over the dynamics of supersymmetric than non-supersymmetric theories. Here, I discuss some issues in dynamical supersymmetry breaking both in ordinary field theory and in string…
This thesis studies meta- and exactly stable supersymmetry breaking mechanisms in heterotic and type IIB string theories and constructs an F-theory Grand Unified Theory model for neutrino physics in which neutrino mass is determined by the…
Starting from a peculiar orientifold projection proposed long ago by Angelantonj and Cardella, we elaborate on a novel perturbative scenario that involves only D-branes, together with the two types of orientifold planes ${\rm O}_{\pm}$ and…
A five-dimensional solution to Einstein's equations coupled to a scalar field has been proposed as a partial solution to the cosmological constant problem: the effect of arbitrary vacuum energy (tension) of a 3-brane is cancelled; however,…
We explored a variety of brane configurations in our previous paper within the two derivative truncation of the unstable D9-brane effective theory. In this paper we extend our previous results with emphasis on the inclusion of the higher…
We examine some novel physical consequences of the general structure of moduli spaces of string vacua. These include (1) finiteness of the volume of the moduli space and (2) chaotic motion of the moduli in the early universe. To fix ideas…
This paper analyzes the effect of curved closed string backgrounds on the stability of D-branes within boundary string field theory. We identify the non-local open string background that implements shifts in the closed string background and…
We provide an explicit example of a higher-dimensional model describing a non-supersymmetric spectrum of 4D particles of mass M, whose 4D geometry -- {\em including loop effects} -- has a curvature that is of order R ~ m_KK^4/M_p^2, where…