Related papers: Current Acceleration from Dilaton and Stringy Cold…
Dark gauge sectors and axions are well-motivated in string theory. We demonstrate that if a confining gauge sector gives rise to dark glueballs that are a fraction of the dark matter, and the associated axion has a decay constant near the…
We consider the spacetime dynamics of a gas of closed strings in the context of General Relativity in a background of arbitrary spatial dimensions. Our motivation is primarily late time String Gas Cosmology, where such a spacetime picture…
We motivate a relation between dark energy and the scale of new physics in weakly coupled string theory. This mixing between infrared and ultraviolet physics leads to a unique corner for real-world phenomenology: barring fine-tunings, we…
We analyse the flat behaviour of the rotational curves in some galaxies in the framework of a dilatonic, current-carrying string. We determine the expression of the tangential velocity of test objects following a stable circular equatorial…
We study the dynamics of light-like tachyon condensation in a linear dilaton background using level-truncated open string field theory. The equations of motion are found to be delay differential equations. This observation allows us to…
One of the few firm predictions of string theory is the existence of a massless scalar field coupled to gravity, the dilaton. In its presence, the value of the fundamental constants of the universe, such as the fine-structure constant, will…
We consider the effects of a gas of closed strings (treated quantum mechanically) on a background where one dimension is compactified on a circle. After we address the effects of a time dependent background on aspects of the string spectrum…
We show that spacetime curvature alone can classically stabilize black strings. Working within a consistent five-dimensional dilaton-gravity system with a flat brane, we find that sufficiently large black strings are classically stable when…
Dark Energy is some of the weirdest and most mysterious stuff in the universe that tends to increase the rate of expansion of the universe. Two commonly known forms of dark energy are the cosmological constant, a constant energy density…
It is widely believed that string theory easily allows for a QCD axion in the cosmologically favoured mass range. The required small decay constant, $f_a\ll M_P$, can be implemented by using a large compactification volume. This points to…
We consider, in a string theory framework, physical processes of phenomenological interest in models with a low string scale. The amplitudes we study involve tree-level virtual gravitational exchange, divergent in a field-theoretical…
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 study the phenomenology of superheavy decaying dark matter with mass around $10^{10}$ GeV which can arise in the low-energy limit of string compactifications. Generic features of string theory setups (such as high scale supersymmetry…
In this talk I discuss recent developments in moduli stabilisation, SUSY breaking and chiral D-brane models together with several interesting features of cosmological models built in the framework of type IIB string compactifications. I…
The recent PAMELA and ATIC/Fermi/HESS experiments have observed an excess of electrons and positrons, but not anti-protons, in the high energy cosmic rays. To explain this result, we construct a decaying hidden dark matter model in string…
String theory, if it describes nature, is probably strongly coupled. In light of recent developments in string duality, this means that the ``real world'' should correspond to a region of the classical moduli space which admits no weak…
We review some formal aspects of cosmological solutions in closed string theory with duality symmetric ``matter'' following recent paper with C. Vafa (HUTP-91/A049). We consider two models : when the matter action is the classical action of…
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…
In the search for an explanation for the current acceleration of the Universe, scalar fields are the most simple and useful tools to build models of dark energy. This field, however, must in principle couple with the rest of the world and…
Static solutions with a bulk dilaton are derived in the context of six dimensional warped compactification. In the string frame, exponentially decreasing warp factors are identified with critical points of the low energy $\beta$-functions…