Related papers: Can a self-gravitating thin cosmic string obey the…

We calculate energies and tensions of closed k-strings in (2+1)-dimensional SU(N) gauge theories with N=4,5,6,8. When we study the dependence of the ground state energy on the string length, we find that it is well described by a Nambu-Goto…

Motivated by the fact that cosmological perturbations of inflationary quantum origin were born Gaussian, the search for non-Gaussianities in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies is considered as the privileged probe of…

Nonrelativistic string theory is a self-contained corner of string theory, with its string spectrum enjoying a Galilean-invariant dispersion relation. This theory is unitary and ultraviolet complete, and can be studied from first…

By using the non-diagonal uniform gauge for the Nambu-Goto string action we derive a gauge-fixed Hamiltonian of a square-root form for the closed string in AdS_5 x S^5 which is wound and rotating in an angular direction in S^5. From the…

Chiral cosmic strings are produced naturally at the end of inflation in supersymmetric models where the symmetry is broken via a D-term. Consequently in such theories, where both inflation and cosmic strings contribute to the density and…

We compute the stochastic gravitational wave background generated by cosmic superstrings using a semi-analytical velocity-dependent model to describe their dynamics. We show that heavier string types may leave distinctive signatures on the…

We show the existence of solitonic solutions of five-dimensional supergravity, which can be interpreted as global cosmic strings in our universe. They possess the same mathematical structure as the stringy cosmic strings studied by Greene,…

We present a string theory that reproduces the large-$N$ expansion of two dimensional Yang-Mills gauge theory on arbitrary surfaces. First, a new class of topological sigma models is introduced, with path integrals localized to the moduli…

The initial data of the gravitational field produced by a loop thick string is considered. We show that a thick loop is not a geodesic on the initial hypersurface, while a loop conical singularity is. This suggests that there is the ``{\it…

Enforcing the spacetime of supermassive cosmic strings to satisfy the symmetry of a gravitational topological defect, that is a spacetime kink, it is shown that the energy of these strings becomes quantized so that only defects whose…

We consider N=2 supersymmetric QCD with the U(N) gauge group (with no Fayet-Iliopoulos term) and N_f flavors of massive quarks deformed by the mass term \mu for the adjoint matter, W=\mu A^2, assuming that N\leq N_f<2N. This deformation…

We consider non-relativistic conformal quantum mechanical theories that arise by doing discrete light cone quantization of field theories. If the field theory has a gravity dual, then the conformal quantum mechanical theory can have a…

We consider several aspects of `confining strings', recently proposed to describe the confining phase of gauge field theories. We perform the exact duality transformation that leads to the confining string action and show that it reduces to…

We consider a local cosmic string described by the Abelian-Higgs model in the framework of scalar-tensor gravities. We find the metric of the cosmic string in the weak-field approximation. The propagation of particles and light is analysed…

We study the dynamics of Nambu--Goto strings with junctions at which three strings meet. In particular, we exhibit one simple exact solution and examine the process of intercommuting of two straight strings, in which they exchange partners…

Effective String Theory (EST) represents a powerful non-perturbative approach to describe confinement in Yang-Mills theory that models the confining flux tube as a thin vibrating string. EST calculations are usually performed using the…

We revisit some aspects of the stringy approach to dipole-dipole interactions, scattering and entanglement in QCD, using the Nambu-Goto (NG) string, without recourse to holography. We first show that the potential between two static dipoles…

To define a free string by the Nambu-Goto action, all we need is the notion of area, and mathematically the area can be defined directly in the absence of a metric. Motivated by the possibility that string theory admits backgrounds where…

Topological gravity is the reduction of general relativity to flat space-times. A lattice model describing topological gravity is developed starting from a Hamiltonian lattice version of $B\w F$ theory. The extra symmetries not present in…

It is shown that the critical (or deconfinement) temperature for the Nambu-Goto string connecting the point-like masses (quarks) does not depend on the value of these masses. This temperature turns out to be the same as that in the case of…