Related papers: String Phenomenology
This is an invited contribution to the Special Issue of "Foundations of Physics" titled "Forty Years Of String Theory: Reflecting On the Foundations". I have been asked to assess string theory as an outsider, and to compare it with the…
It is argued that classical string solutions should not be fine tuned to have a positive cosmological constant (CC) at the observed size, since even the quantum corrections from standard model effects will completely negate any classical…
Charged black holes, both spherically symmetric and rotating, in the low energy limit of string theory (Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory) are compared to analogous geometries in pure general relativity. We describe various physical…
It is hoped that these lectures will give a point of entry into that vast web of related ideas that go under the name "string theory". I start with a more or less qualitative introduction to gravity as a field theory and sketch how one…
I present arguments to the affect that the topological phase of string theory must be event-symmetric. This motivates a search for a universal string group for discrete strings in event-symmetric space-time which unifies space-time symmetry…
This is a short account, based on a talk given at the 2024 Moriond Cosmology Conference, of where and why string theory matters in early universe cosmology. It is written for a cosmology audience predisposed to be at best sceptical, and at…
A polemical article evaluating string theory from the point of view of a quantum field theorist working in a mathematics department. Comments to the author are encouraged.
A detailed analysis of anomalous U(1)'s and their effective couplings is performed both in field theory and string theory. It is motivated by the possible relevance of such couplings in particle physics, as well as a potential signal…
The first lecture gives a colloquium-level overview of string theory and M-theory. The second lecture surveys various attempts to construct a viable model of particle physics. A recently proposed approach, based on F-theory, is emphasized.
Recently, string theory on some specific curved backgroud spacetime geometries has been conjectured to be equivalent to certain gauge theories (AdS/CFT correspondence). This correspondence may be used to investigate the non-perturbative…
A brief review of the status of duality symmetries in string theory is presented. The evidence is accumulating rapidly that an enormous group of duality symmetries, including perturbative T dualities and non-perturbative S-dualities,…
In these lecture notes, an introduction to superstring theory is presented. Classical strings, covariant and light-cone quantization, supersymmetric strings, anomaly cancelation, compactification, T-duality, supersymmetry breaking, and…
In the present paper we consider quantum theories obtained by quantization of classical theories with first-class constraints assuming that these constraints form a Lie algebra. We show that in this case, one can construct physical…
The search for a theory that unifies general relativity and quantum theory has focused attention on models of physics at the Planck scale. One possible consequence of models such as string theory may be that Lorentz invariance is not an…
Assuming string theorists will not soon provide a compelling case for the primary theory underlying particle physics, the field will proceed as it has historically: with data stimulating and testing ideas. Ideally the soft supersymmetry…
Using a classical action associated to a point-particle in (1+1)-dimensions the classical string theory is derived. In connection with this result two aspects are clarified: First, the point particle in (1+1)-dimensions is not an ordinary…
In this review I discuss some basic aspects of non-perturbative string theory. The topics include test of duality symmetries based on the analysis of the low energy effective action and the spectrum of BPS states, relationship between…
We attempt to understand the fate of spacelike gravitational singularities in string theory via the quantum stress tensor for string matter in a fixed background. We first approximate the singularity with a homogeneous anisotropic…
These lectures discuss some of the general issues in developing a phenomenology for Superstring Theory/M Theory. The focus is on the question: how might one obtain robust, generic predictions. For example, does the theory predict low energy…
We make some observations regarding string/black hole correspondence with a view to understanding the nature of the quantum degrees of freedom of a black hole in string theory. In particular, we compare entropy change in analogous string…