Related papers: Topological structures, dark matter and gravitatio…
${\rm B - L}$ cosmic strings form in a wide class of theories beyond the Standard Model which contain a ${\rm U}(1)_{{\rm B - L}}$ gauge symmetry. They can form at the end of hybrid inflation and explain, together with inflation, the Cosmic…
We describe a class of 4d N=1 compactifications of the $SO(32)$ heterotic/type I string theory which are destabilized by nonperturbatively generated superpotentials. In the type I description, the destabilizing superpotential is generated…
We explore supersymmetric SO(10) models predicting observable proton decay and various topological defects which produce different shapes and strengths of gravitational wave backgrounds depending on the scales of intermediate symmetry…
The discovery of the topological insulators has fueled a surge of interests in the topological phases in periodic systems. Topological insulators have bulk energy gap and topologically protected gapless edge states. The edge states in…
In a recent paper (see https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.108.095053), we have demonstrated that the 2023 PTA results, which hint at a stochastic gravitational wave (GW) background at nanohertz frequencies, point towards a promising…
We review recent progress in constructing realistic brane models from type I string vacua. Explicit models with three families of the standard model gauge group and its left-right generalizations are presented with supersymmetry broken at…
We argue that cosmic strings with high winding numbers generally form in first-order gauge symmetry breaking phase transitions, and we demonstrate this using computer simulations. These strings are heavier than single-winding strings and…
In these lectures, I review the current status of cosmic strings and cosmic superstrings. I first discuss topological defects in the context of Grand Unified Theories, focusing in particular in cosmic strings arising as gauge theory…
We review the main results of our investigations motivated by the tadpole potentials of ten-dimensional strings with broken supersymmetry. While these are at best partial indications, it is hard to resist the feeling that they do capture…
Topological defects, in particular cosmic strings, give rise to an interesting mechanism for generating the primordial perturbations in the early Universe which are required to explain the present structure. An overview of the cosmic string…
In a recent paper, we identified a cosmological sector of a flipped $SU(5)$ model derived in the free fermionic formulation of the heterotic superstring, containing the inflaton and the goldstino superfields with a superpotential leading to…
The usual condensed matter lattice theories do not include dynamical electromagnetic (EM) field and do not have higher symmetries naturally (unless we engineer fine-tuned toy models to realize higher symmetries). However, for gapped…
I present arguments to the affect that the topological phase of string theory must be event-symmetric. This motivates a search for a universal string group for discrete strings in event-symmetric space-time which unifies space-time symmetry…
We construct four dimensional intersecting D6-brane models that have locally the spectrum of the N=1 Supersymmetric Standard Model. All open {\em visible} string sectors share the same N=1 supersymmetry. As expected in these supersymmetric…
We study properties of domain walls in the symmetron model, in which the scalar gravitational degree of freedom decouples from matter in regions of high density, and exhibits a spontaneously broken $Z_2$ symmetry at low densities. The…
We compute the dynamics of particles and strings falling into smooth horizonless spacetimes that match the Schwarzschild black hole but replace its horizon with a smooth cap in supergravity. The cap consists of a regular topological…
Cosmic strings are topological defects which can be formed in GUT-scale phase transitions in the early universe. They are also predicted to form in the context of string theory. The main mechanism for a network of Nambu-Goto cosmic strings…
We present a critical review and summary of String Gas Cosmology. We include a pedagogical derivation of the effective action starting from string theory, emphasizing the necessary approximations that must be invoked. Working in the…
Breaking of discrete parity at high scale gives rise to $Z_2$-domain walls (DW). The metastability of such walls can make them relatively long lived and contradict standard cosmology. We consider two classes of theories with similar…
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…