Related papers: Landskepticism: or Why Effective Potentials Don't …
In this paper, we explore the string theory landscape obtained from type IIB and F-theory flux compactifications. We first give a comprehensive introduction to a number of mathematical finiteness theorems, indicate how they have been…
A vast array of (metastable) vacuum solutions arise from string compactifications, each leading to different 4-d laws of physics. The space of these solutions, known as the string landscape, allows for an environmental solution to the…
It has recently been conjectured that string theory does not admit de Sitter vacua, and that quintessence explains the current epoch of accelerated cosmic expansion. A proposed, key prediction of this scenario is time-varying couplings in…
Theories in more than ten dimensions play an important role in understanding nonperturbative aspects of string theory. Consistent compactifications of such theories can be constructed via Calabi-Yau fourfolds. These models can be analyzed…
Recently it has been conjectured that string theory does not allow for dS vacua or dS extrema. To scrutinize such a conjecture, it is important to study concrete string theory compactifications and spell out their assumptions and potential…
Popular multiverse models such as the one based on the string theory landscape require an underlying set of unexplained laws containing many specific features and highly restrictive prerequisites. I explore the consequences of relaxing some…
We argue that the heterotic string does not have classical vacua corresponding to de Sitter space-times of dimension four or higher. The same conclusion applies to type II vacua in the absence of RR fluxes. Our argument extends prior…
This is the written version of a talk given at the Santa Barbara Workshop on Supersymmetry in December of 1995. It summarizes a collection of results on superstring cosmology obtained by the author and various collaborators, and contains…
We present evidence that the number of string/$M$ theory vacua consistent with experiments is a finite number. We do this both by explicit analysis of infinite sequences of vacua and by applying various mathematical finiteness theorems.
In these lectures I review recent attempts to apply string theory to cosmology, including string cosmology and various models of brane cosmology. In addition, the review includes an introduction to inflation as well as a discussion of…
In this Thesis we investigate properties of stability, rigidity and unitarity of the string landscape in ten and lower dimensions. The dissertation explores these aspects by intertwining a detailed analysis of string vacua, with and without…
Anthropic arguments in multiverse cosmology and string theory rely on the weak anthropic principle (WAP). We show that the principle, though ultimately a tautology, is nevertheless ambiguous. It can be reformulated in one of two unambiguous…
We argue that in the context of string theory a large number N of connected degenerate vacua that mix will lead to a ground state with much lower energy, essentially because of the standard level repulsion of quantum theory for the…
Disorder on the string theory landscape may significantly affect dynamics of eternal inflation leading to the possibility for some vacua on the landscape to become dynamically preferable over others. We systematically study effects of a…
String and field theory ideas have greatly influenced each other since the so called second string revolution. We review this interrelation paying particular attention to its phenomenological implications. Our guiding principle is the…
This paper describes my talk given to the 27th Johns Hopkins Workshop: Symmetries and Mysteries of M Theory, G\"oteborg, Sweden, 24-26 August, 2003. After a brief introduction to the lightcone worldsheet formalism for summing the planar…
This contribution briefly describes some developments of the use of string symmetries and anomaly cancellation mechanisms to include string loop corrections in the construction of the low-energy effective supergravity of superstrings.…
We make a number of conjectures about the geometry of continuous moduli parameterizing the string landscape. In particular we conjecture that such moduli are always given by expectation value of scalar fields and that moduli spaces with…
This is a short account, based on a talk given at the 2024 Moriond Cosmology Conference, of where and why string theory matters in early universe cosmology. It is written for a cosmology audience predisposed to be at best sceptical, and at…
The space of four dimensional string and $M$ theory vacua with non-Abelian gauge symmetry, chiral fermions and unbroken supersymmetry beyond the electroweak scale appears to be a disconnected space whose different components represent…