Related papers: Running Decompactification, Sliding Towers, and th…
We examine recent work on compactifications of string theory with fluxes, where effective potentials for light moduli have been derived after integrating out moduli that are assumed to be heavy at the classical level, and then adding…
The weak gravity conjecture states that quantum gravity theories have to contain a charged state with a charge-to-mass ratio bigger than unity. By studying unitarity and causality constraints on higher derivative corrections to the…
Orientifold planes play a crucial role in flux compactifications of string theory, and we demonstrate their deep connection to achieving scale-separated solutions. Specifically, we show that when an orientifold plane contributes at leading…
We revisit type II$_0$ limits in the vector multiplet moduli space of compactifications of Type IIB string theory on Calabi-Yau threefolds. These limits are special because they cannot be described using mirror symmetry. While we showed in…
We study compactifications of type IIA string theory on Calabi-Yau manifolds that are mirror to a subset of the type IIB LARGE-volume models. A combination of flux, alpha' corrections and non-perturbative effects stabilises the moduli in a…
Swampland criteria like the Weak Gravity Conjecture should not only apply to particles, but also to other lower-codimension charged objects in 4d EFTs like strings and membranes. However, the description of the latter is in general subtle…
We revisit the Emergence Proposal in 4d ${\cal N}=2$ vector multiplet sectors that arise from type II string Calabi--Yau compactifications, with emphasis on the role of axionic fundamental strings, or EFT strings. We focus on large-volume…
Recently, it has become clear that neighboring multiple vacua might have interesting consequences for the physics of the early universe. In this paper we investigate the topography of the string landscape corresponding to complex structure…
We consider, in a string theory framework, physical processes of phenomenological interest in models with a low string scale. The amplitudes we study involve tree-level virtual gravitational exchange, divergent in a field-theoretical…
We study moduli stabilization by thermal effects in the cosmological context. The implementation of finite temperature, which spontaneously breaks supersymmetry, induces an effective potential at one loop level. At the points where extra…
We argue that moduli stabilization generically restricts the evolution following transitions between weakly coupled de Sitter vacua and can induce a strong selection bias towards inflationary cosmologies. The energy density of domain walls…
We review recent work in which compactifications of string and M theory are constructed in which all scalar fields (moduli) are massive, and supersymmetry is broken with a small positive cosmological constant, features needed to reproduce…
This thesis primarily dives into investigating the details of four-dimensional vacua within String Theory using the AdS/CFT correspondence. In the first and second part of the thesis, we study the fibred Calabi-Yau and M-theory moduli…
We show that the recent world-sheet analysis of the quantum fluctuations of a short flux tube in type II string theory leads to a simple and precise description of a pair of stuck D0branes in an orientifold compactification of the type I'…
Modular flavor symmetries have been proposed as a new way to address the flavor problem. It is known that they can emerge from string compactifications. We discuss this connection in detail, and show how the congruence subgroups of SL(2,Z),…
We prove a version of the Weak Gravity Conjecture for 6d F-theory or heterotic string compactifications with 8 supercharges. This sharpens our previous analysis by including massless scalar fields. The latter are known to modify the Weak…
Among Swampland conditions, the distance conjecture characterizes the geometry of scalar fields and the de Sitter conjecture constrains allowed potentials on it. We point out a connection between the distance conjecture and a refined…
We present a solution to the decompactification problem of gauge thresholds in chiral heterotic string theories with two large extra dimensions, where supersymmetry is spontaneously broken by the Scherk-Schwarz mechanism. Whenever the…
We explore the possibility that quantum cosmology considerations could provide a selection principle in the landscape of string vacua. We propose that the universe emerged from the string era in a thermally excited state and determine,…
Perturbative estimates suggest that extended topological defects such as cosmic strings emit few particles, but numerical simulations of the fields from which they are constructed suggest the opposite. In this paper we study the decay of…