Related papers: String Theory and The Arrow of Time
`Old' String Theory is a theory of one-dimensional extended objects, whose vibrations correspond to excitations of various target-space field modes including gravity. In these lectures I will give an introduction to low-energy Effective…
We find ourselves in an extended era of entropy production. Unlike most other observations, the arrow of time is usually regarded as a constraint on initial conditions. I argue, however, that it primarily constrains the vacuum structure of…
It is pointed out that string-loop effects may generate matter couplings for the dilaton allowing this scalar partner of the tensorial graviton to stay massless while contributing to macroscopic gravity in a way naturally compatible with…
It is generally believed that a cosmological arrow of time must be associated with entropy production. Indeed, in his seminal work on cyclic cosmology, Tolman introduced a viscous fluid in order to make successive expansion/contraction…
Inflation allows the problem of the Arrow of time to be understood as a question about the structure of spacetime: why was the intrinsic curvature of the earliest spatial sections so much better behaved than it might have been? This is…
We present a wholly self-consistent, complete cyclic bouncing cosmology based on components drawn from string theory and constructed in a way that is under perturbative control throughout (e.g., with temperature much less than the string…
FRW solutions of the string theory low-energy effective actions are described, yielding a dilaton which first decreases and then increases. We study string creation in these backgrounds and find an exponential divergence due to an initial…
Generic cosmological models in non-critical string theory have a time-dependent dilaton background at a late epoch. The cosmological deceleration parameter Q_0 is given by the square of the string coupling, g_s^2, up to a negative sign.…
We discuss some aspects of string cosmology with an emphasis on the role played by the dilaton. A cosmological scenario based on the assumption that all spatial dimensions are periodic so that winding modes play an important role is…
String cosmology aims at providing a reliable description of the very early Universe in the regime where standard-model physics is no longer appropriate, and where we can safely apply the basic ingredients of superstring models such as…
Instant Folded Strings (IFSs) are unconventional light strings that emerge when the string coupling increases with time. A particularly intriguing property of IFSs, especially relevant to cosmology, is that they violate the Null Energy…
String-loop effects may generate very weak matter couplings for a (massless) dilaton. We examine limits on the shift of such a dilaton toward its present equilibrium value from big-bang nucleosynthesis and the binary pulsar. On the other…
We consider string theory in a time dependent orbifold with a null singularity. The singularity separates a contracting universe from an expanding universe, thus constituting a big crunch followed by a big bang. We quantize the theory both…
Aspects of string cosmology for critical and non-critical strings are discussed emphasizing the necessity to account for the dilaton dynamics for a proper incorporation of ``large - small" duality. This drastically modifies the intuition…
We examine the field equations of a self-gravitating global string in low energy superstring gravity, allowing for an arbitrary coupling of the global string to the dilaton. Massive and massless dilatons are considered. For the massive…
We study the effect of the geometry and topology of a scalar-tensor cosmic string space-time on the electric and magnetic fields of line sources. It is shown that the dilatonic coupling of the gravity induces effects along the string…
In dilaton gravity theories, we consider a string-like topological defect formed during U(1) gauge symmetry-breaking phase transition in the early Universe, and far from the cosmic string we have vacuum solutions of the generalized Einstein…
We argue that string theory has all the ingredients to provide us with candidates for the cold dark matter and explain the current acceleration of our Universe. In any generic string compactification the dilaton plays an important role as…
We comment on the relation between string theory and empirical science, grounding our discussion in cosmology, a subject with increasingly precise data in which this connection operates at several levels. It is important to take into…
The arrow of time and the accelerated expansion are two fundamental empirical facts of the Universe. We advance the viewpoint that the dark energy (positive cosmological constant) accelerating the expansion of the Universe also supports the…