Related papers: Hidden sector axions: physics and cosmology
String theories suggest the existence of a plethora of axion-like fields with masses spread over a huge number of decades. Here we show that these ideas lend themselves to a model of quintessence with no super-Planckian field excursions and…
Auxiliary string fields are introduced in light-cone gauge string field theory in order to express contact interactions as contractions of cubic vertices. The auxiliary field in the purely closed-string bosonic theory may be given a…
We argue that quintessence may reside in certain corners of the string landscape. It arises as a linear combination of internal space components of higher rank forms, which are axion-like at low energies, and may mix with 4-forms after…
Dark gauge sectors and axions are well-motivated in string theory. We demonstrate that if a confining gauge sector gives rise to dark glueballs that are a fraction of the dark matter, and the associated axion has a decay constant near the…
String theory predicts that the couplings of Nature descend from dynamical fields. All known string-motivated particle physics models also come with a wide range of possible extra sectors. It is common to posit that such moduli are frozen…
We discuss vacuum energy in string and M-theory with a focus on heterotic M-theory. In the latter theory a mechanism is described for maintaining zero vacuum energy after supersymmetry breaking. Higher-order corrections can be expected to…
We motivate a relation between dark energy and the scale of new physics in weakly coupled string theory. This mixing between infrared and ultraviolet physics leads to a unique corner for real-world phenomenology: barring fine-tunings, we…
Classical solutions of equations of motion in low energy effective field theory, describing fundamental charged heterotic string, are found. These solutions automatically carry an electric current equal to the charge per unit length, and…
We study the coupling of axions to gauge bosons in heterotic string theory. The axion-gauge boson couplings in the low energy 4d theory are derived by matching mixed anomalies between higher-form global symmetries and the zero-form gauge…
We recently proposed a solution to the hierarchy problem not relying on low-energy supersymmetry or technicolor. Instead, the problem is nullified by bringing quantum gravity down to the TeV scale. This is accomplished by the presence of $n…
Axionic cosmic string solutions are investigated in a superstring motivated model with a pseudo-anomalous U(1) gauge symmetry. The inclusion of a gauge field and spatially varying dilaton allow local defect solutions with finite energy per…
We elaborate on the idea that five-dimensional models where sequestering is spoiled due to contact interactions induced by vector multiplets may still be mildly sequestered if a global version of the gauge symmetry associated to the latter…
We use string duality to describe instanton induced spontaneous supersymmetry breaking in string compactifications with additional background fields. Dynamical supersymmetry breaking by space-time instantons in the heterotic string theory…
Some of the soft SUSY breaking parameters in hidden sector supergravity model depend on the expectation value of the hidden sector scalar potential, $<V_h>$, whose tree level value is equal to the tree level cosmological constant. The…
The discovery of the Higgs boson at the LHC supports the hypothesis that the Standard Model provides an effective parameterisation of all subatomic experimental data up to the Planck scale. String theory, which provides a viable…
Persisting tensions between high-redshift and low-redshift cosmological observations suggest the dark energy sector of the Universe might be more complex than the positive cosmological constant of the $\Lambda$CDM model. Motivated by string…
Axions, grand unification, and string theory are each compelling extensions of the Standard Model. We show that combining these frameworks imposes strong constraints on the QCD axion mass. Using unitarity arguments and explicit string…
Previous quantum field estimations of the QCD vacuum in the expanding space-time lead to a dark energy component scaling linearly with the Hubble parameter, which gives the correct figure for the observed cosmological term. Here we show…
In the present thesis I studied the phenomenology arising from a class of string models called sequestered compactifications, which were born with the aim of getting low-energy SUSY from strings. This is not an easy task if combined with…
Recent BICEP2 detection of low-multipole B-mode polarization anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background radiation supports the inflationary universe scenario and suggests a large inflaton field range. The latter feature can be achieved…