Related papers: String Cosmology: A Review
A synthetic report of the advances in the study of classical and quantum string dynamics in curved backgrounds is provided, namely: the new feature of multistring solutions; the effect of a cosmological constant and of spacial curvature on…
In discussing the construction of a consistent theory of quantum gravity unified with the gauge interactions we are naturally led to a string theory. We review its properties and the five consistent supersymmetric string theories in ten…
One of the simplest time-dependent solutions of M theory consists of nine-dimensional Euclidean space times 1+1-dimensional compactified Milne space-time. With a further modding out by Z_2, the space-time represents two orbifold planes…
An introductory survey of some of the developments that have taken place in superstring theory in the past few years is presented. The main focus is on three particular dualities. The first one is the appearance of an 11th dimension in the…
Cosmic strings are linear concentrations of energy that may be formed at phase transitions in the very early universe. At one time they were thought to provide a possible origin for the density inhomogeneities from which galaxies eventually…
Making use of the wealth of new observational data coming from the sky it is possible to constrain particle physics theories beyond the Standard Model. One way to do this is illustrated in this article: a subset of theories admits cosmic…
Currently, string theory represents the only advanced approach to a unification of all interactions, including gravity. In spite of the more than thirty years of its existence it did not make any empirically testable predictions. And it is…
The $N=2$ fermionic string theory is revisited in light of its recently proposed equivalence to the non-compact $N=4$ fermionic string model. The issues of space-time Lorentz covariance and supersymmetry for the BRST quantized $N=2$ strings…
Cosmic strings are predicted in many models beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. In models which admit strings, a network of strings will inevitably be formed in a phase transition in the early universe and will persist to the…
We discuss the possible applications of string theory for the construction of generalizations of the $SU(3)\times SU(2)\times U(1)$ standard model of strong and electroweak interactions. This includes an investigation of effective $d=4$…
We try to draw lessons for higher dimensions from the string representations recently derived for large $N$ Yang-Mills theory by Gross and Taylor, Kostov, and others, and call attention to three characteristics that should be expected of a…
I argue that string creation may have played a role in reheating the universe after inflation. For strings in four dimensions that arise from branes wrapping cycles in the extra dimensions, estimates from effective field theory show that…
We comment on the relation between string theory and empirical science, grounding our discussion in cosmology, a subject with increasingly precise data in which this connection operates at several levels. It is important to take into…
It has recently been realised that strings with time-dependent tensions exhibit interesting dynamics; in particular, when the tension decreases loops of string can grow and possibly percolate. We extend previous analytic studies of strings…
Cosmic strings are topological defects possibly formed in the early Universe, which may be observable due to their gravitational effects on the cosmic microwave background radiation or gravitational wave experiments. To this effect it is…
Supersymmetry breaking in string theory is expected to occur when moduli fields acquire non-trivial expectation values. In the early universe these fields start out displaced from their final destinations. I present some recent ideas about…
An overview is presented of some cosmological aspects of string theory. Recent developments are emphasised, especially the attempts to derive inflation or alternatives to inflation from the dynamics of branes in string theory. Time…
This article, based on the Klein lecture, contains some new results and new speculations on various topics. They include discussion of open strings in the AdS space, unusual features of D-branes, conformal gauge theories in higher…
We study the effects of friction on the scaling evolution of string networks in condensed matter and cosmological contexts. We derive a generalized `one-scale' model with the string correlation length $L$ and velocity $v$ as dynamical…
This is the written version of a talk given at the Santa Barbara Workshop on Supersymmetry in December of 1995. It summarizes a collection of results on superstring cosmology obtained by the author and various collaborators, and contains…