Related papers: Current Acceleration from Dilaton and Stringy Cold…
We study some possible astrophysical implications of a very weakly coupled ultralight dilaton-type scalar field. Such a field may develop an (approximately stable) network of domain walls. The domain wall thickness is assumed to be…
Classical strings coupled to a metric, a dilaton and an axion, as conceived by superstring theory, suffer from ultraviolet divergences due to self-interactions. Consequently, as in the case of radiating charged particles, the corresponding…
The dynamics of superstring, supergravity and M theories and their compactifications are probed by studying the various perturbation theories that emerge in the strong and weak coupling limits for various directions in coupling constant…
We discuss the properties of the gas of primordial `stringy' black holes possibly formed in the high-curvature phase preceding the bouncing transition to the phase of standard cosmological evolution. We show that the regime dominated by…
Cosmic strings, topological defects predicted by high-energy theories, may contribute to the late-time expansion of the Universe, effectively mimicking dynamical dark energy. We investigate four phenomenological extensions of the…
We study the possibility that the dilaton -- the fundamental scalar field which exists in all the existing unified field theories -- plays the role of the dark matter of the universe. We find that the condition for the dilaton to be the…
Non-critical String Cosmologies are offered as an alternative to Standard Big Bang Cosmology. The new features encompassed within the dilaton dependent non-critical terms affect the dynamics of the Universe\'s evolution in an unconventional…
The interplay of dilatonic effects in dilaton cosmology and stochastic quantum space-time defects within the framework of string/brane cosmologies is examined. The Boltzmann equation describes the physics of thermal dark-matter-relic…
Coupled dark sector models have gained significant attention, motivated by recent advances in cosmology and the pressing need to address unresolved puzzles. In this work, we study coupled scalar dark sector models inspired by…
Axions, grand unification, and string theory are each compelling extensions of the Standard Model. We show that combining these frameworks imposes strong constraints on the QCD axion mass. Using unitarity arguments and explicit string…
We study cosmological solutions to the low-energy effective action of heterotic string theory including possible leading order $\alpha'$ corrections and a potential for the dilaton. We consider the possibility that including such stringy…
Velocity-dependent interactions in a fundamental-string dominated universe lead quite naturally, with reasonable assumptions on initial conditions, to an accelerating expanding universe without assuming the existence of a cosmological…
An important element in a model of non-singular string cosmology is a phase in which classical corrections saturate the growth of curvature in a deSitter-like phase with a linearly growing dilaton (an `algebraic fixed point'). As the form…
We present a simple model for the late time stabilization of extra dimensions. The basic idea is that brane solutions wrapped around extra dimensions, which is allowed by string theory, will resist expansion due to their winding mode. The…
We investigate decaying D-branes as the origin of the thermal string gas of string gas cosmology. We consider initial configurations of low-dimensional branes and argue that they can time evolve to thermal string gas. We find that there is…
We study the 10D equation of motion of dilaton-axion fluctuations in type IIB string compactifications with three-form flux, taking warping into account. Using simplified models with physics comparable to actual compactifications, we argue…
Modern astrophysical and cosmological models are faced with two severe theoretical difficulties, that can be summarized as the dark energy and the dark matter problems. Relative to the former, it has been stated that cosmology has entered a…
I propose a reinterpretation of cosmic dark matter in which a rigid network of cosmic strings formed at the end of inflation. The cosmic strings fulfill three functions: At recombination they provide an accretion mechanism for virializing…
In this paper we review in detail a number of approaches that have been adopted to try and explain the remarkable observation of our accelerating Universe. In particular we discuss the arguments for and recent progress made towards…
Over the last few years, string theory has changed profoundly. Most importantly, novel duality relations have emerged which involve gauge theories of brane excitations on one side and various closed string backgrounds on the other. In this…