Related papers: The weak gravity conjecture in perturbative string…
Almost all known theories of quantum gravity satisfy the Lattice Weak Gravity Conjecture (LWGC), which posits that a consistent theory of quantum gravity must have a superextremal particle at every site in the charge lattice. However, a…
By considering linear-order departures from general relativity, we compute a novel expression for the weak lensing convergence power spectrum under alternative theories of gravity. This comprises an integral over a 'kernel' of general…
We have recently shown that a class of counterexamples to (weak) cosmic censorship in anti-de Sitter spacetime is removed if the weak gravity conjecture holds. Surprisingly, the minimum value of the charge to mass ratio necessary to…
A brief discussion is presented assessing the achievements and challenges of string phenomenology: the subfield dedicated to study the potential for string theory to make contact with particle physics and cosmology. Building from the well…
In the presence of large extra dimensions, the fundamental Planck scale can be much lower than the apparent four-dimensional Planck scale. In this setup, the weak gravity conjecture implies a much more stringent constraint on the UV cutoff…
We argue that it is possible to address the deeper LHC Inverse Problem, to gain insight into the underlying theory from LHC signatures of new physics. We propose a technique which may allow us to distinguish among, and favor or disfavor,…
A synthesis of previous work done on the microscopic structure of cosmic strings in realistic models is made and reveals that strings are expected to be not only superconducting in the sense of Witten, but also generically current-carrying,…
We propose the almost-geodesic motion of self-gravitating test bodies as a possible selection rule among metric theories of gravity. Starting from a heuristic statement, the "gravitational weak equivalence principle", we build a formal,…
If the graviton possesses an arbitrarily small (but nonvanishing) mass, perturbation theory implies that cosmic strings have a nonzero Newtonian potential. Nevertheless in Einstein gravity, where the graviton is strictly massless, the…
In the nearly twenty years that have elapsed since its discovery, the gauge-gravity correspondence has become established as an efficient tool to explore the physics of a large class of strongly-coupled field theories. A brief overview is…
The string corrections to the Riemann Curvature tensor are found to first order in the string slope parameter, here proportional to $\g$. This is done for D=10 supergravity, the presumed low energy limit of string theory. We follow the…
We discuss in detail how string-inspired lineal gravity can be formulated as a gauge theory based on the centrally extended Poincar\'e group in $(1+1)$ dimensions. Matter couplings are constructed in a gauge invariant fashion, both for…
With our current level of understanding, the problem of making string theory predictions is not one of "solving" the theory, but rather of trying to determine whether there are any generic expectations. Within this context, we discuss what…
We present projected constraints on the cosmic string tension, $G\mu/c^2$, that could be achieved by future gravitational wave detection experiments and express our results as semi-analytic relations of the form $G\mu(\Omega_{\rm…
In an analysis of the gravitational lensing by two relativistic cosmic strings, we argue that the formation of closed time-like curves proposed by Gott is unstable in the presence of particles (e.g. the cosmic microwave background…
In this thesis we are interested in the study of the gravitational properties of quantum bosonic strings. We start by computing the quantum energy-momentum tensor ${\hat T}^{\mu\nu}(x)$ for strings in Minkowski space-time. We perform the…
We study the collapse of a circular loop of cosmic string. The gravitational field of the string is treated using the weak field approximation. The gravitational radiation from the loop is evaluated numerically. The memtric of the loop near…
Identifying string theory vacua with desired physical properties at low energies requires searching through high-dimensional solution spaces - collectively referred to as the string landscape. We highlight that this search problem is…
I review some aspects of non-critical strings in connection with Lorentz-Invariance violating approaches to quantum gravity. I also argue how non-critical strings may provide a unifying framework where string Cosmology and quantum gravity…
It has recently been shown that the ordinary bosonic string can be represented by a special background of N=1 or N=2 strings. In this paper, it will be shown that the bosonic string can also be represented by a special background of…