Related papers: Old ideas and new twists in string cosmology
This thesis is dedicated to the study of inflationary scenarios based on string theory. Inflation is a brief period of accelerated expansion in the very early Universe which gives natural explanations for problems of the Standard Big Bang…
We study cosmological scenarios resulting from effective actions in four dimensions which are, under some assumptions, connected with multidimensional, supergravity and string theories. These effective actions are labeled by the parameters…
Super--inflation driven by dilaton/moduli kinetic energy is naturally realized in compactified string theory. Discussed are selected topics of recent development in string inflationary cosmology: kinematics of super-inflation, graceful exit…
The classical evolution of a homogeneous cosmological model is investigated within the framework of low - energy effective string gravity with higher genus corrections. Various conformal frames are considered. For the general case of…
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…
An interpretation of spacelike singularities in string theory uses target space duality to relate the collapsing Schwarzschild geometry near the singularity to an inflationary cosmology in dual variables. An appealing picture thus results…
We consider linear cosmological perturbations on the background of a D-brane gas in which the compact dimensions and the dilaton are stabilized. We focus on long wavelength fluctuations and find that there are no instabilities. In…
Theories of the cosmological constant fall into two classes, those in which the vacuum energy is fixed by the fundamental theory and those in which it is adjustable in some way. For each class we discuss key challenges. The string theory…
String cosmology solutions are examined in a generalized phase-space including sources representing arbitrary corrections to lowest order string-dilaton-gravity effective action. We find a set of necessary conditions for a graceful exit…
We investigate the generation of curvature and isocurvature (dilaton, moduli and axion) perturbations in a general class of axion-dilaton-moduli models,including the pre-big bang scenario. Allowing for an arbitrary coupling constant between…
Some aspects of the theory of cosmological perturbations from cosmic strings and other topological defects are outlined, with particular reference to a simple example: a spatially flat CDM-dominated universe. The conserved energy-momentum…
Cosmic strings are considered in two types of gauged sigma models, which generalize the gravitating Abelian Higgs model. The two models differ by whether the U(1) kinetic term is of the Maxwell or Chern-Simons form. We obtain the…
The graceful exit transition from a dilaton-driven inflationary phase to a decelerated Friedmann-Robertson-Walker era requires certain classical and quantum corrections to the string effective action. Classical corrections can stabilize a…
String theory is the leading contemporary framework to explore the synthesis of quantum mechanics with gravity. String phenomenology aims to study string theory while maintaining contact with observational data. The fermionic $Z_2\times…
We study the cosmological evolution based upon a $D$-dimensional action in low-energy effective string theory in the presence of second-order curvature corrections and a modulus scalar field (dilaton or compactification modulus). A…
We explore a novel cosmological model based on coupled fields in the framework of scalar tensor theories, considering the specific interplay between gravity and scalar fields. The model further extends a recent axion-dilaton system by…
We study cosmologies based on low-energy effective string theory with higher-order string corrections to a tree-level action and with a modulus scalar field (dilaton or compactification modulus). In the presence of such corrections it is…
In string theory the coupling ``constants'' appearing in the low-energy effective Lagrangian are determined by the vacuum expectation values of some (a priori) massless scalar fields (dilaton, moduli). This naturally leads one to expect a…
Solutions to flat space Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmologies in Brans-Dicke theory with a cosmological constant are investigated. The matter is modelled as a $\gamma$-law perfect fluid. The field equations are reduced from fourth order to…
We study nature of singularities in anisotropic string-inspired cosmological models in the presence of a Gauss-Bonnet term. We analyze two string gravity models-- dilaton-driven and modulus-driven cases-- in the Bianchi type-I background…