Related papers: Hiding the extra dimensions: A review on scale sep…
It has been argued that orientifold vacua with fluxes in type IIA string theory can achieve moduli stabilisation and arbitrary decoupling between the AdS and KK scales upon sending certain unconstrained RR-flux quanta to infinity. In this…
We review the status of low-scale string theories and large extra-dimensions. After an overview on different string realizations, we discuss some of the main important problems and we summarize present bounds on the size of possible…
We propose the first examples of scale-separated vacua with extended supersymmetry. They arise as circle compactifications of four-dimensional vacua of massive type IIA supergravity with scale separation, upon introducing additional fluxes…
AdS flux vacua with a parametric separation between the AdS and KK scales have been conjectured to be in the Swampland. We study flux compactifications of massive IIA supergravity with O6 planes which are claimed to allow moduli-stabilised…
String theory in two-dimensional spacetime illuminates two main threads of recent development in string theory: (1) Open/closed string duality, and (2) Tachyon condensation. In two dimensions, many aspects of these phenomena can be explored…
We examine recent claims of a large set of flux compactification solutions of string theory. We conclude that the arguments for AdS solutions are plausible. The analysis of meta-stable dS solutions inevitably leads to situations where long…
We describe some recent progress in understanding and formulating string theory which is based on extensive studies of strings in lower (D=2) dimension. At the center is a large $W_{\infty}$ symmetry that appears most simply in the matrix…
The space of four dimensional string and $M$ theory vacua with non-Abelian gauge symmetry, chiral fermions and unbroken supersymmetry beyond the electroweak scale appears to be a disconnected space whose different components represent…
I construct supersymmetric AdS$_3$ vacua of type IIB string theory that exhibit parametric scale separation in the controlled regime. These solutions arise from compactifications on seven-dimensional manifolds equipped with co-closed…
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…
We provide the first scale-separated AdS solutions from compactifications of the heterotic string. Our solutions have parametrically weak coupling, large volume, and the internal KK scale is parametrically smaller than the AdS length. These…
We give a brief overview of the string landscape and techniques used to construct string compactifications. We then explain how this motivates the notion of the swampland and review a number of conjectures that attempt to characterize…
The topic of cosmic strings provides a bridge between the physics of the very small and the very large. They are predicted by some unified theories of particle interactions. If they exist, they may help to explain some of the largest-scale…
We motivate a relation between dark energy and the scale of new physics in weakly coupled string theory. This mixing between infrared and ultraviolet physics leads to a unique corner for real-world phenomenology: barring fine-tunings, we…
In this work, we point out a contradiction between holography and scale-separated AdS (i.e. parametrically large mass gap) in string theory, making the standard assumption that the holographic CFT describes the IR degrees of freedom on a…
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 review the existence, formation and properties of cosmic strings in string theory, the wide variety of observational techniques that are being employed to detect them, and the constraints that current observations impose on string theory…
In order for string theory to be made compatible with the low-energy observations of a positive cosmological constant, there have been attempts to construct dS vacua in string theory which are particularly difficult to realize. Instead of…
In a recent article, arXiv:2605.12414, it is stated that a certain scale transformation has been "systematically overlooked" in discussions of the tensionless string. Here we point out that this kind of symmetry is treated in numerous…
These lecture notes provide a pedagogical introduction, with exercises, to the techniques used in attempts to construct vacua with stabilised moduli in string theory. The reader is only assumed to have a basic knowledge of general…