Related papers: Neutrino zeromodes on electroweak strings in light…
We consider a simple model describing a closed bosonic string in a constant magnetic field. Exact conformal invariance demands also the presence of a non-trivial metric and antisymmetric tensor (induced by the magnetic field). The model is…
In this paper, based on the gauge potential decomposition and the $\phi-$mapping theories, we study the topological structures and properties of the cosmic strings that arise in the Abelian-Higgs gauge theory in the zero-thickness limit.…
We study the impact of TeV-scale sterile neutrinos on electro-weak precision observables and lepton number and flavour violating decays in the framework of a type-I see-saw extension of the Standard Model. At tree level sterile neutrinos…
We consider several aspects of `confining strings', recently proposed to describe the confining phase of gauge field theories. We perform the exact duality transformation that leads to the confining string action and show that it reduces to…
We study string theory on orbifolds in the presence of an antisymmetric constant background field and discuss some of new aspects of the theory. It is shown that the term with the antisymmetric field has a topological nature like a…
We study the dynamics of strings with non-zero winding number around T-duality defects. We deduce that the physics near the core of such non-geometric objects involves winding modes that are not captured by the supergravity approximation,…
We investigate the stability of superconducting strings as bound states of strings and fermion zero modes at both the classical and quantum levels. The dynamics of these superconducting strings can result in a stable configuration, known as…
This thesis is almost entirely devoted to studying string theory backgrounds characterized by simple geometrical and integrability properties. The archetype of this type of system is given by Wess-Zumino-Witten models, describing string…
The stability of "visible" electroweak-type cosmic strings is investigated in an extension of the Standard Model (SM) by a minimal dark sector, consisting of a U(1) gauge field, broken spontaneously by a scalar. The "visible" and dark…
The standard electroweak theory admits a string solution, the Z string, in which only the electrically neutral Higgs fields are excited. This solution is unstable at zero temperature: Z strings decay by exciting charged Higgs modes. In the…
We investigate orbifold compactifications of the heterotic string, addressing in detail their construction, classification and phenomenological potential. We present a strategy to search for models resembling the minimal supersymmetric…
We study the phenomenology of a class of models describing modular invariant gaugino condensation in the hidden sector of a low-energy effective theory derived from the heterotic string. Placing simple demands on the resulting observable…
We review some aspects of moduli in string theory. We argue that one should focus on {\it approximate moduli spaces}, and that there is evidence that such spaces exist non-perturbatively. We ask what it would mean for string theory to…
In this letter we show how string winding modes can be constructed using topological membranes. We use the fact that monopole-instantons in compact topologically massive gauge theory lead to charge non-conservation inside the membrane…
Cosmic strings in realistic particle physics models have fermion zero modes in the string core. Such zero modes change the underlying cosmology; for example, the string can carry a current. We consider the stability of fermion zero modes to…
A fundamental string with non-zero winding number can unwind in the presence of a Kaluza-Klein monopole. We use this fact to deduce the presence of a zero mode for the Kaluza-Klein monopole corresponding to excitations carrying H electric…
Even with recent progress, it is still very much an open question to understand how all compactification moduli are stabilized, since there are several mechanisms. For example, it is possible to generate a scalar potential either…
We consider the dynamics of confined strings embedded in a gapless four-dimensional theory. To this end, we examine finite-tension string-like solutions to the equations of motion of the $\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^1$ non-linear sigma model. We…
The effect of perturbations of electroweak strings on quark zero modes is studied in 2+1 and 3+1 dimensions. As first discovered by Naculich, it is found that the bosonic perturbations that destabilize the string give a mass to the zero…
A field theory approach to summing threshold effects to the gauge couplings in a two-torus compactification is presented and the link with the (heterotic) string calculation is carefully investigated. We analyse whether the complete UV…