Related papers: String islands, discrete theta angles and the 6D $…

Quantization of closed string proceeds with a suitable choice of worldsheet vacuum. A priori, the vacuum may be chosen independently for left-moving and right-moving sectors. We construct {\sl ab initio} quantized bosonic string theory with…

We consider D=6, N=1, Z_M orbifold compactifications of heterotic strings in which the usual modular invariance constraints are violated. It is argued that in the presence of non-perturbative effects many of these vacua are nevertheless…

It appears that string-M-theory is the only viable candidate for a complete theory of matter. It must therefore contain both gravity and QCD. What is particularly surprising is the recent conjecture that strongly coupled QCD matrix elements…

Six dimensional $\mathcal{N}=(1,0)$ supergravity features BPS strings whose properties encode highly nontrivial information about the parent 6d theory. We focus on a distinguished set of theories whose string charge lattice is…

We discuss the duality between two type I compactifications to four dimensions and an heterotic construction with spontaneous breaking of the N=4 supersymmetry to N=2. This duality allows us to gain insight into the non-perturbative…

The string theory landscape consists of many metastable de Sitter vacua, populated by eternal inflation. Tunneling between these vacua gives rise to a dynamical system, which asymptotically settles down to an equilibrium state. We…

We study dimensional reductions of M-theory/type II strings down to 6D in the presence of fluxes and spacetime filling branes and orientifold planes of different types. We classify all inequivalent orientifold projections giving rise to…

We study the null orbifold singularity in 2+1 d flat space higher spin theory as well as string theory. Using the Chern-Simons formulation of 2+1 d Einstein gravity, we first observe that despite the singular nature of this geometry, the…

We study supersymmetric AdS$_7$ vacua of massive type IIA string theory, which were argued to describe the near-horizon limit of NS5/D6/D8-brane intersections and to be holographically dual to 6D $(1,0)$ theories. We show, for the case…

There is evidence that string theory possesses a large discretuum of stable and/or metastable ground states, with zero or four supersymmetries in four dimensions. I discuss critically the nature of this evidence. Assuming this "landscape"…

The Fayet-Iliopoulos $D$-term is a common feature in $\mathcal{N}=1$ string vacua that contain an anomalous $U(1)$ gauge symmetry, and arises from a one--loop diagram in string perturbation theory. The same diagram is generated in string…

We derive formulas for counting certain classes of vacua in the string/M theory landscape. We do so in the context of the moduli space of M-theory compactifications on singular manifolds with G_2 holonomy. Particularly, we count the numbers…

We perform a systematic search for N=1 Minkowski vacua of type II string theories on compact six-dimensional parallelizable nil- and solvmanifolds (quotients of six-dimensional nilpotent and solvable groups, respectively). Some of these…

We show that various disconnected components of the moduli space of superstring vacua with 16 supercharges admit a rationale in terms of BPS un-orientifolds, i.e. type I toroidal compactifications with constant non-vanishing but quantized…

We study type II string vacua defined by torus compactifications accompanied by T-duality twists. We realize the string vacua, specifically, by means of the asymmetric orbifolding associated to the chiral reflections combined with a shift,…

We investigate the effects of the leading tadpole potentials of 10D tachyon-free non-supersymmetric strings in warped products of flat geometries of the type M(p+1) x R x T(10-p-2) depending on a single coordinate. In the absence of fluxes…

We discuss type IIB orientifolds with D-branes, and NSNS and RR field strength fluxes. The D-brane sectors lead to open string spectra with non-abelian gauge symmetry and charged chiral fermions. The closed string field strengths generate a…

Warped compactifications of massive type IIA supergravity on a 3-sphere with spacetime-filling O6/D6 sources are known to admit a half-maximal gauged supergravity description in 7D. We study the effect of introducing open string degrees of…

We construct purely non-perturbative anti-de Sitter vacua in string theory which, on uplifting to a de Sitter (dS) one, have a decay time many orders of magnitude smaller than those of standard constructions, such as the KKLT and LVS…

We investigate the field dependence of the gauge couplings of $N=1$ string vacua from the point of view of the low energy effective quantum field theory. We find that field-theoretical considerations severely constrain the form of the…