Related papers: TASI/PiTP/ISS Lectures on Moduli and Microphysics

Considering SO(32) heterotic string theory compactified on a torus of dimension 4 and less, stability of non-supersymmetric states is studied. A non-supersymmetric state with robust stability is constructed, and its exact stability is…

We reexamine a family of models with a 3+1-dimensional de Sitter spacetime obtained in the standard tree-level low-energy limit of string theory with a non-trivial anisotropic axion-dilaton background. While such limiting approximations are…

In this paper, we want to emphasize the pivotal role played by strings in the model realizing de Sitter using an expanding bubble, proposed and subsequently developed in arXiv:1807.01570, arXiv:1907.04268, and arXiv:2001.07433. Contrary to…

This article represents the author's PhD thesis which is focused on moduli stabilisation in type IIB Calabi-Yau flux compactifications and its applications to cosmology. I derive the topological conditions on an arbitrary Calabi-Yau to give…

We discuss string corrections to the effective potential in various models of brane inflation. These corrections contribute to the mass of the inflaton candidate and may improve its slow-roll properties. In particular, in orientifold string…

We study the possibility of obtaining metastable de Sitter vacua of heterotic string theory compactified on a Calabi-Yau threefold which are classical and simple in the K\"ahler moduli sector of the theory. For this, we exploit a known…

We study novel type IIB compactifications on the T^6/Z_2 orientifold. This geometry arises in the T-dual description of Type I theory on T^6, and one normally introduces 16 space-filling D3-branes to cancel the RR tadpoles. Here, we cancel…

We present a pedagogical review of the stable non-BPS states in string theory which have recently attracted some attention in the literature. In particular, following the analysis of A. Sen, we discuss in detail the case of the stable…

Natural inflation relies on the existence of an axion decay constant which is super-Planckian. In string theory only sub-Planckian axion decay constants have been found in any controlled regime. However in field theory it is possible to…

We conduct a systematic search for a viable string/M-theory cosmology, focusing on cosmologies that include an era of slow-roll inflation, after which the moduli are stabilized and the Universe is in a state with an acceptably small…

We study quantum effects on moduli dynamics arising from the production of particles which are light at special points in moduli space. The resulting forces trap the moduli at these points, which often exhibit enhanced symmetry. Moduli…

We construct a model of inflation in string theory after carefully taking into account moduli stabilization. The setting is a warped compactification of Type IIB string theory in the presence of D3 and anti-D3-branes. The inflaton is the…

Superstring/M-theory compactified on compact Ricci flat manifolds have recently been conjectured to exhibit instabilities whenever the metrics do not have special holonomy. We use worldsheet conformal field theory to investigate…

We examine recent work on compactifications of string theory with fluxes, where effective potentials for light moduli have been derived after integrating out moduli that are assumed to be heavy at the classical level, and then adding…

A generic feature of string compactifications is the presence of many scalar fields, called moduli. Moduli are usually displaced from their post-inflationary minimum during inflation. Their relaxation to the minimum could lead to the…

We investigate effects of the radiation and the moduli oscillation around the stabilized values on the evolution of a 6-dimensional spacetime compactified on $S^2$. In order to see the transition from the 5-dimensional space to the…

Deformation of N=2 quiver gauge theories by adjoint masses leads to fixed manifolds of N=1 superconformal field theories. We elaborate on the role of the complex three-form flux in the IIB duals to these fixed point theories, primarily…

We discuss deformations of orbifold singularities on tilted tori in the context of Type IIA orientifold model building with D6-branes on special Lagrangian cycles. Starting from $T^6/(\mathbb{Z}_2 \times \mathbb{Z}_2)$, we mod out an…

Exact string solutions are presented, where moduli fields are varying with time. They provide examples where a dynamical change of the topology of space is occurring. Some other solutions give cosmological examples where some dimensions are…

In this set of lectures various properties of D-branes are discussed. After reviewing the basics, we discuss unstable D-brane/anti-D-brane systems, a subject pioneered by Sen. Following him, we discuss the construction of the non-BPS…