Related papers: Signatures in the Planck Regime
It is shown that varying speed of light cosmology follows from a string-inspired minimal length uncertainty relation. Due to the reduction of the available phase space volume per quantum mode at short wavelengths, the equation of state of…
We consider some consequences of describing the gauge and matter degrees of freedom in our universe by open strings, as suggested by the braneworld scenario. We focus on the geometric effects described by the open string metric and…
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 minimal-length paradigm, a possible implication of quantum gravity at low energies, is commonly understood as a phenomenological modification of Heisenberg's uncertainty relation. We show that this modification is equivalent to a…
In string theories, interactions are exponentially suppressed for trans-Planckian space-like external momenta. We study a class of quantum field theories that exhibit this feature modeled after Witten's bosonic open string field theory, and…
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 generalized uncertainty principle and a minimum measurable length arise in various theories of gravity and predict Planck-scale modifications of the canonical position-momentum commutation relation. Postulating a similar modified…
We investigate the low energy physics implications of a prototype quasi-realistic superstring model with an anomalous U(1). First, we present the techniques utilized to compute the mass spectrum and superpotential couplings at the string…
Recent progress in quantum gravity and string theory has raised interest among scientists to whether or not nature behaves discretely at the Planck scale. There are two attitudes twoards this discretenes i.e. top-down and bottom-up…
There is evidence that string theory possesses a large discretuum of stable and/or metastable ground states, with zero or four supersymmetries in four dimensions. I discuss critically the nature of this evidence. Assuming this "landscape"…
The possibility of a modification of special relativity with an invariant energy scale playing the role of a minimum energy is explored. Consistency with the equivalence of different inertial frames is obtained by an appropriate choice of a…
The string landscape accommodates a broad range of possible effective field theories. This poses a challenge for extracting verifiable predictions as well as falsifiable signatures of string theory. Motivated by these considerations, in…
Flat directions are a generic feature of the scalar potential in supersymmetric gauge field theories. They can arise, for example, from D-terms associated with an extra abelian gauge symmetry. Even when supersymmetry is broken softly, there…
The hypothesis of a discrete fabric of the universe--the "Planck scale"--is always on stage, since it solves mathematical and conceptual problems in the infinitely small. However, it clashes with special relativity, which is designed for…
Lorentz invariance is such a basic principle in fundamental physics that it must be constantly tested and that any proposal of its violation and breakdown of CPT symmetry, that might characterize some approaches to quantum gravity, should…
In the recent quantum-gravity literature there has been strong interest in the possibility of Planck-scale departures from Lorentz symmetry, including possible modifications of the energy/momentum dispersion relation. I stress that a…
Inflation can act as a space-time microscope for Planck or string scale effects, leaving potentially observable traces in the primordial perturbation spectrum. I discuss two frameworks that were used recently to study this phenomenon:…
A large class of quantum theories of gravity show that the Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is modified to the "Generalised Uncertainty Principle" (GUP) near the Planckian scale. It has also been shown that the GUP induces perturbative…
GUT scale threshold corrections in minimal SU(5) supergravity grand unification are discussed. It is shown that predictions may be made despite uncertainties associated with the high energy scale. A bound relating the strong coupling…
We propose that the effective dimensionality of the space we live in depends on the length scale we are probing. As the length scale increases, new dimensions open up. At short scales the space is lower dimensional; at the intermediate…