Related papers: Constraining the string scale: from Planck to Weak…
We review and elaborate on properties of the string tension in two-dimensional gauge theories. The first model we consider is massive QED in the $m\ll e$ limit. We evaluate the leading string tension both in the fermionic and bosonized…
In string theory, the consequences of replacing the measure of integration $\sqrt{-\gamma}d^2 x$ in the Polyakov's action by $\Phi d^2 x$ where $\Phi$ is a density built out of degrees of freedom independent of the metric $\gamma_{ab}$…
The Standard Model is the low-energy limit of a microscopic theory which includes extra dimensions and new symmetries. A part of my thesis consisted in constructing a new class of models with two extra dimensions. We showed that these…
The problems with background independence are discussed in the example of open string theory. Based on the recent proposal by Witten I calculate the String Field Theory action in conformal perturbation theory to second order and demonstrate…
This article is based on a talk given at the ``Strings'97'' conference. It discusses the search for the universality class of confining strings. The key ingredients include the loop equations, the zigzag symmetry, the non-linear…
Large extra dimensions lower the Planck scale to values soon accessible. Motivated by string theory, the models of large extra dimensions predict a vast number of new effects in the energy range of the lowered Planck scale, among them the…
We reexamine democratic open string field theories, namely, theories in which string fields are not constrained to a single picture number and picture changing is obtained as a gauge transformation. We describe several possibilities for…
Much curent theoretical analysis is based on the hypothesis that the physics beyond the Standard Model is a consequence of new principles that occur at the Planck scale. The question arises whether such principles can ever be directly…
We study how canonical transfomations in first quantized string theory can be understood as gauge transformations in string field theory. We establish this fact by working out some examples. As a by product, we could identify some of the…
A minimal area problem imposing different length conditions on open and closed curves is shown to define a one parameter family of covariant open-closed quantum string field theories. These interpolate from a recently proposed factorizable…
I briefly summarize a recent research program aiming to probe the landscape of low-energy phases of string theory from a global perspective. Borrowing conceptual lessons from the swampland program, I will discuss how the effective theories…
In the light of the mass gap between Standard Model (SM) states and possible new particles, effective field theories are a suitable approach. We take on the non-linear realization of the electroweak symmetry breaking: the electroweak…
The space-time metric is widely believed to be subject to stochastic fluctuations induced by quantum gravity at the Planck scale. This work is based on two different phenomenological approaches being currently made to this topic, and…
If nature is described by string theory, and if the compactification radius is large (as suggested by the unification of couplings), then the theory is in a regime best described by the low energy limit of $M$-theory. We discuss some…
This is a broad-brush review of how string theory addresses several important questions of gravitational physics. The problem of non-renormalizability is first reviewed, followed by introduction of string theory as an ultraviolet-finite…
The spectrum of stable electrically and magnetically charged supersymmetric particles can change discontinuously as one changes the vacuum on the Coulomb branch of gauge theories with extended supersymmetry in four dimensions. We show that…
Effective theories based on experimental data provide powerful probes and tests of underlying theories in elementary particle physics. Examples within and beyond the Standard Model are discussed, including a specific model for supersymmetry…
In a recent paper, Balthazar, Rodriguez and Yin found remarkable agreement between the one instanton contribution to the scattering amplitudes of two dimensional string theory and those in the matrix model to the first subleading order. The…
String theory has no parameter except the string scale $M_S$, so the Planck scale $M_\text{Pl}$, the supersymmetry-breaking scale, the EW scale $m_\text{EW}$ as well as the vacuum energy density (cosmological constant) $\Lambda$ are to be…
The early history of string theory is marked by a shift from strong interaction physics to quantum gravity. The first string models and associated theoretical framework were formulated in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the context of the…