Related papers: The Dilaton Potential from N= 1*
We discuss the phases of four dimensional gauge theories and demonstrate them in solvable examples. Some of our simple examples exhibit confinement and oblique confinement. The theory has dual magnetic and dual dyonic descriptions in which…
We study the structure of the moduli spaces of vacua and superpotentials of N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories in three dimensions. By analyzing the instanton corrections, we compute the exact superpotentials and determine the quantum…
We review the non-anticommutative Q-deformations of N=(1,1) supersymmetric theories in four-dimensional Euclidean harmonic superspace. These deformations preserve chirality and harmonic Grassmann analyticity. The associated field theories…
In this work we present the minimal supersymmetric extension of the five-dimensional dilaton-gravity theory that captures the main properties of the holographic dual of little string theory. It is described by a particular gauging of…
We briefly discuss the differences between considering the gauge coupling as a constant or as a field, the dilaton, in N=1 supersymmetric theories. We emphasize the differences regarding supersymmetry breaking. Recent developments on the…
This thesis consists of two parts. In the first part we study some topics in $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmeric gauge theory and the relation to matrix models. We review the relevant non-perturbative techniques for computing effective…
A candidate for the confining string of gauge theories is constructed via a representation of the ultraviolet divergences of quantum field theory by a closed string dilaton insertion, computed through the soft dilaton theorem. The resulting…
The non-perturbative superpotential can be effectively calculated in $M$-theory compactification to three dimensions on a Calabi-Yau four-fold $X$. For certain $X$, the superpotential is identically zero, while for other $X$, a…
I calculate the potential of a pointlike particle carrying SU$(N_c)$ charge in a gauge theory with a dilaton. The solution depends on boundary conditions imposed on the dilaton: For a dilaton that vanishes at infinity the resulting…
We consider N=2 supergravity theories that have the same spectrum as the R+R^2 supergravity, as predicted from the off-shell counting of degrees of freedom. These theories describe standard N=2 supergravity coupled to one or two long…
The N=2 string is examined in dimensions above the critical dimension (D=4) in a linear dilaton background. We demonstrate that string states in this background propagate in a single physical time dimension, as opposed to two such…
The problems of attempting inflationary model-building in a theory containing a dilaton are explained. In particular, I study the shape of the dilaton potential today and during inflation, based on a weakly-coupled heterotic string model…
The supersymmetric generalization of dilatations in the presence of the dilaton is defined. This is done by defining the supersymmetric dilaton geometry which is motivated by the supersymmetric volume preserving diffeomorphisms. The…
Supersymmetric gauge theories in four dimensions can display interesting non-perturbative phenomena. Although the superpotential dynamically generated by these phenomena can be highly nontrivial, it can often be exactly determined. We…
We study tadpole potentials of non-supersymmetric strings, resorting to a first-order formalism known in the literature as fake supersymmetry. We present a detailed analysis for vacua with only gravity and the dilaton, displaying the…
We show that the usual dilaton dominance scenario, derived from the tree level K\"ahler potential, can never correspond to a global minimum of the potential at $V=0$. Similarly, it cannot correspond to a local minimum either, unless a…
We study the dynamics of 2+1 dimensional theories with ${\cal N}=1$ supersymmetry. In these theories the supersymmetric ground states behave discontinuously at co-dimension one walls in the space of couplings, with new vacua coming in from…
We consider N=1 superpotentials corresponding to gaugings of an underlying extended supergravity for a chiral multiplet in the SU(1,1)/U(1) manifold of curvature 2/3. We analyze the resulting D=4 scalar potentials, and show that they can…
Using the renormalization-group formalism, a sigma model of a special type- in which the metric and the dilaton depend explicitly on one of the string coordinates only-is investigated near two dimensions. It is seen that dilatonic gravity…
We discuss recent progress in the understanding of the vacuum structure (effective superpotentials) of confining gauge theories with N=1 supersymmetry. Even for non-supersymmetric theories, appropriate perturbative calculations (e.g. using…