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Double Field Theory (DFT) is a low-energy effective theory of a manifestly $O(D,D)$ invariant formulation of the closed string theory when toroidally compactified dimensions are present. The theory is based on a doubled spacetime structure…
Physical principles such as unitarity, causality, and locality can constrain the space of consistent effective field theories (EFTs) by imposing two-sided bounds on the allowed values of Wilson coefficients. In this paper, we consider the…
The status of exponential scalar potentials in supergravity is reviewed, and updated. One version of N=8 D=4 supergravity with a positive exponential potential, obtainable from a `non-compactification' of M-theory, is shown to have an…
We present an Effective Field Theory (EFT) formalism which describes the dynamics of non-relativistic extended objects coupled to gravity. The formalism is relevant to understanding the gravitational radiation power spectra emitted by…
In this thesis we study maximally supersymmetric solutions of gauged supergravity theories, with special focus on anti-de Sitter solutions. The latter are relevant in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence. In the first part we classify…
Exceptional field theories are the manifestly duality covariant formulations of the target space theories of string/M-theory in the low-energy limit (supergravity) or for certain truncations. These theories feature a rich system of…
The Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) in anti-de Sitter spacetime (AdS) asserts the existence of an operator in the boundary conformal field theory (CFT) whose scaling dimension-to-charge ratio satisfies a certain upper bound. This bound is…
In this PhD thesis I make use of the "Effective Field Theory of Gravity for Extended Objects" by Goldberger and Rothstein in order to investigate theories of gravity and to take a different point of view on the physical information that can…
We propose quantum gravitational constraints on effective four-dimensional theories with N=1 supersymmetry. These Swampland constraints arise by demanding consistency of the worldsheet theory of a class of axionic, or EFT, strings whose…
Effective field theories describing gravity coupled to matter are investigated, allowing for operators of arbitrary mass dimension. Terms violating local Lorentz and diffeomorphism invariance while preserving internal gauge symmetries are…
We constrain the spectrum of $\mathcal{N}=(1, 1)$ and $\mathcal{N}=(2, 2)$ superconformal field theories in two-dimensions by requiring the NS-NS sector partition function to be invariant under the $\Gamma_\theta$ congruence subgroup of the…
It has been notoriously difficult to construct a meta-stable de Sitter (dS) vacuum in string theory in a controlled approximation. This suggests the possibility that meta-stable dS belongs to the swampland. In this paper, we propose a…
Effective field theories (EFT) parameterize the long-distance effects of short-distance dynamics whose details may or may not be known. It is known that EFT coefficients must obey certain positivity constraints if causality and unitarity…
Higher-derivative operators are central elements of any effective field theory. In supersymmetric theories, these operators include terms with derivatives in the K\"ahler potential. We develop a toolkit for coupling such supersymmetric…
Based on bulk reconstruction from the finite boundary of the Bruhat-Tits tree, the boundary effective theory is obtained after integrating out fields outside this boundary. According to the $~p$-adic version of Anti-de Sitter/Conformal…
Extensions of the photon and graviton soft theorems are derived in 4d local effective field theories with massless particles of arbitrary spin. We prove that effective operators can result in new terms in the soft theorems at subleading…
Using mainly analytical arguments, we derive the exact relation $\eta_{max}=\sqrt{3/8\pi}$ for the maximal vacuum value of the Higgs field for static gravitational global monopoles. For this value, the global monopole bifurcates with the de…
We show that standard Einstein gravity coupled to a free conformal field theory (CFT) in Anti de Sitter space can undergo a Higgs phenomenon whereby the graviton acquires a nonzero mass (and three extra polarizations). We show that the…
It was proposed by Maldacena that the large $N$ limit of certain conformal field theories can be described in terms of supergravity on anti-De Sitter spaces (AdS). Recently, Gubser, Klebanov and Polyakov and Witten have conjectured that the…
This Ph.D. thesis investigates effective field and string theories in which supersymmetry is realized and broken in various ways. Chapter 1 addresses effective theories with nonlinearly realized supersymmetry, constructed using the…