Related papers: Low-energy graceful exit in anisotropic string cos…
In hep-th/0508194 it was shown how non-perturbative corrections to gravity can resolve the big bang singularity, leading to a bouncing universe. Depending on the scale of the non-perturbative corrections, the temperature at the bounce may…
A simple model for the formation of a straight cosmic string, wiggly or unperturbed is considered. The gravitational field of such string is computed in the linear approximation. The vacuum expectation value of the stress tensor of a…
I report on recent numerical simulations of the simplest field theory with cosmic string solutions, the Abelian Higgs model. We find that random networks of string quickly converge to a scaling solution in which the network scale length…
We consider the construction of nonsingular Pre-Big-Bang and Ekpyrotic type cosmological models realized by the addition to the action of specific higher-order terms stemming from quantum corrections. We study models involving general…
The phenomenon of the dark energy transition between the quintessence regime ($w > -1$) and the phantom regime ($w < -1$), also known as the cosmological constant boundary crossing, is analyzed in terms of the dark energy equation of state.…
The pre-big-bang cosmology inspired by superstring theories has been suggested as an alternative to slow-roll inflation. We analyze, in both the Jordan and Einstein frames, the effect of spatial curvature on this scenario and show that too…
We present the results of a detailed study of how isocurvature axion fluctuations are converted into adiabatic metric perturbations through axion decay, and discuss the constraints on the parameters of pre-big bang cosmology needed for…
We consider noncommutative quantum cosmology in the case of the low-energy string effective theory. Exacts solutions are found and compared with the commutative case.The Noncommutative quantum cosmology is considered in the case of the…
Effective Field Theory techniques are used to study the leading order quantum corrections to the gravitational wave backreaction. The effective stress-energy tensor is calculated and it is shown that it has a non-vanishing trace that…
We examine variations in the equation of state of the cosmic string portion of the cosmological fluid which lead to perturbations of the background matter density. These fluctuations in the equation of state are due to variations in the…
Pulsar timing arrays are one of the powerful tools to test the existence of cosmic strings through searching for the gravitational wave background. The amplitude of the background connects to information on cosmic strings such as the…
This paper examines two cosmological models of quantum gravity (from string theory and loop quantum gravity) to investigate the foundational and conceptual issues arising from quantum treatments of the big bang. While the classical…
We consider backreaction due to production of massless strings in the background of a condensing closed string tachyon. Working in the region of weak tachyon, we find the modified equations of motion for massless strings with conformal…
The general $\sigma$-model-type string action including both massless and massive higher spins background fields is suggested. Field equations for background fields are followed from the requirement of quantum Weyl invariance. It is shown…
The duality-type symmetries of string cosmology naturally lead to a pre-big-bang phase of accelerated evolution as dual counterpart of the decelerated expansion of standard cosmology. We discuss several properties of this scenario,…
In the string landscape picture, the effective potential is characterized by an enormous number of local minima of which only a minuscule fraction are suitable for the evolution of life. In this "multiverse", random transitions are…
The string effective action at tree level contains, in its bosonic sector, the Einstein-Hilbert term, the dilaton, and the axion, besides scalar and gauge fields coming from the Ramond-Ramond sector. The reduction to four dimensions brings…
We discuss data analysis techniques that can be used in the search for gravitational wave bursts from cosmic strings. When data from multiple interferometers are available, we describe consistency checks that can be used to greatly reduce…
We review quantum causal histories starting with their interpretations as a quantum field theory on a causal set and a quantum geometry. We discuss the difficulties that background independent theories based on quantum geometry encounter in…
The string equations of motion and constraints are solved for a ring shaped Ansatz in cosmological and black hole spacetimes. In FRW universes with arbitrary power behavior [$R(X^0) = a\;|X^0|^{\a}\, $], the asymptotic form of the solution…