Related papers: Almost classical de Sitter?

In this note, we review our construction of de Sitter vacua in type IIB flux compactifications, in which moduli stabilization and D-term uplifting can be combined consistently with the supergravity constraints. Here, the closed string…

We review recent progress in the construction of four-dimensional vacua of Type II string theory and F-theory which yield the Standard Model of particle physics (SM) or extensions thereof. In Type II orientifold compactifications the SM…

We study cosmological properties of type IIA compactifications on orientifolds of SU(3)-structure manifolds with non-vanishing geometric flux. These compactifications give rise to effective 4D N=1 supergravity theories that do not fall…

Type IIA string theory compactified on SU(3)-structure manifolds with orientifolds allows for classical de Sitter solutions in four dimensions. In this paper we investigate these solutions from a ten-dimensional point of view. In…

I present asymmetric orientifold models which, with the addition of RR fluxes, fix all the NS NS moduli including the dilaton. In critical string theory, this gives new AdS backgrounds with (discretely tunably) weak string coupling.…

We report on progress towards constructing string models incorporating both realistic D-brane matter content and moduli stabilisation with dynamical low-scale supersymmetry breaking. The general framework is that of local D-brane models…

Scattering of fundamental states of type IIB supergravity and superstring theory is discussed at low orders in perturbation theory in the background of a D-instanton. The integration over fermionic zero modes in both the low energy…

We develop new scenarios of large field inflation in type IIA string compactifications in which the key ingredient is a D6-brane that creates a potential for a B-field axion. The potential has the multi-branched structure typical of F-term…

We argue that dS vacua in the LARGE-volume scenario of type IIB string theory are vulnerable to various unsuppressed curvature, warping and $g_s$ corrections. We work out in general how these corrections affect the moduli vevs, the vacuum…

We elaborate on recent results regarding the self-consistency of de Sitter vacua in the LARGE-volume scenario of type IIB string theory. In particular, we analyze to what extent the control over warping, curvature and $g_s$ corrections…

We study the compactification of the $(2,0)$ and type-II little-string theories on $S^1$, $T^2$ and $T^3$ with an R-symmetry twist that preserves half the supersymmetry. We argue that it produces the same moduli spaces of vacua as…

We consider rotating strings and D2-branes on type IIA background, which arises as dimensional reduction of M-theory on manifold of G2 holonomy, dual to N=1 gauge theory in four dimensions. We obtain exact solutions and explicit expressions…

We develop quantization aspects of our Liouville approach to non-critical strings, proposing a path-integral formulation of a second quantization of string theory, that incorporates naturally the couplings of string sources to background…

We study the N=1 Sp(2N+2M)xSp(2N) gauge theory on a stack of N physical and M fractional D3-branes in the background of an orientifolded conifold. The gravity dual is a type IIB orientifold of adS_5xT^11 (with certain background fluxes…

D-branes can end on orbifold planes if the action of the orbifold group includes (-1)^{F_L}. We consider configurations of D-branes ending on such orbifolds and study the low-energy theory on their worldvolume. We apply our results to gauge…

We find AdS5 solutions holographically dual to compactifications of six-dimensional N=(1,0) supersymmetric field theories on Riemann surfaces with punctures. We simplify a previous analysis of supersymmetric AdS5 IIA solutions, and with a…

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 study the existence of D-brane bound states at threshold in Type II string theories. In a number of situations, we can reduce the question of existence to quadrature, and the study of a particular limit of the propagator for the system…

We construct supergravity solutions describing branes (D2-branes or NS5-branes or waves) localized within D6-branes in the region close to the core of the D6-branes. Other similar string-theory and M-theory `near-core' localized solutions…

We study four-dimensional superconformal field theories living on the worldvolume of $D3$ branes probing minimally-supersymmetric F-theory backgrounds, focusing on the case of orbi-orientifold setups with and without 7-branes. We observe…