Related papers: Cosmology from Moduli Dynamics
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…
Cosmic (super)strings offer promising ways to test ideas about the early universe and physics at high energies. While in field theory constructions their tension is usually assumed to be constant (or at most slowly-varying), this is often…
In this thesis we study compactifications of type II string theories and M-theory to four dimensions. We construct the four-dimensional N=2 supergravities that arise from compactifications of type IIA string theory and M-theory on manifolds…
We study the cosmological evolution of string/M moduli fields T. We use T-duality to fix the potential and show that the superpotential W is a function of the duality invariant function j(T) only. If W is given as a finite polynomial of j…
In this talk I will discuss the role of finite temperature quantum corrections in string cosmology and show that they can lead to a stabilization mechanism for the volume moduli. I will show that from the higher dimensional perspective this…
We study five-dimensional Kasner cosmologies in the vicinity of a conifold locus occurring in a time-dependent Calabi-Yau compactification of M-theory. The dynamics of M2-brane winding modes, which become light in this region, is taken into…
A scenario which overcomes the well-known cosmological overshoot problem associated with stabilizing moduli with steep potentials in string theory is proposed. Our proposal relies on the fact that moduli potentials are very steep and that…
This brief article reviews a recently proposed scenario of moduli stabilization constructed in the vicinity of a conifold locus in the complex structure moduli space. We discuss typical features of moduli stabilization due to the…
This paper is concerned with string cosmology and the dynamics of multiple scalar fields in potentials that can become negative, and their features as (Early) Dark Energy models. Our point of departure is the "String Axiverse", a scenario…
We review recent work in which compactifications of string and M theory are constructed in which all scalar fields (moduli) are massive, and supersymmetry is broken with a small positive cosmological constant, features needed to reproduce…
Multidimensionality of our Universe is one of the most intriguing assumption in modern physics. It follows naturally from theories unifying different fundamental interactions with gravity, e.g. M/string theory. The idea has received a great…
The region of moduli space of string theories which is most likely to describe the "real world" is where the string coupling is about unity and the volume of extra compact dimensions is about the same size as the string volume. Here we map…
We study moduli stabilization by thermal effects in the cosmological context. The implementation of finite temperature, which spontaneously breaks supersymmetry, induces an effective potential at one loop level. At the points where extra…
We study five-dimensional Kasner cosmologies in a time-dependent Calabi-Yau compactification of M-theory undergoing a flop transition. The dynamics of the additional states, which become massless at the transition point and give rise to a…
We consider models where moduli fields are not stabilized and play the role of quintessence. In order to evade gravitational tests, we investigate the possibility that moduli behave as chameleon fields. We find that, for realistic moduli…
High-scale string inflationary models are in well-known tension with low-energy supersymmetry. A promising solution involves models where the inflaton is the volume of the extra dimensions so that the gravitino mass relaxes from large…
In effective supergravity theories following from the superstring, a modulus field can quite naturally set the neccessary initial conditions for successful cosmological inflation to be driven by a hidden sector scalar field. The leading…
Supersymmetry breaking in string theory is expected to occur when moduli fields acquire non-trivial expectation values. In the early universe these fields start out displaced from their final destinations. I present some recent ideas about…
We study the cosmology of perturbative heterotic superstring theory during the radiation-like era for semi-realistic backgrounds with initial $\N=1$ supersymmetry. This analysis is valid for times after the Hagedorn era (or alternatively…
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…