Related papers: Vacuum Geometry and the Search for New Physics
Cosmic voids are increasingly recognized as a promising tool for cosmological exploration. Their distribution and density profiles are highly responsive to alterations in gravitational theories, along with the influences of dark energy and…
A method to solve various aspects of the strong coupling expansion of the superconformal field theory duals of AdS_5 x X geometries from first principles is proposed. The main idea is that at strong coupling the configurations that dominate…
We construct families of hyper-elliptic curves which describe the quantum moduli spaces of vacua of $N=2$ supersymmetric $SU(N_c)$ gauge theories coupled to $N_f$ flavors of quarks in the fundamental representation. The quantum moduli…
We study the effective field theory that describes the low-energy physics of self-gravitating media. The field content consists of four derivatively coupled scalar fields that can be identified with the internal comoving coordinates of the…
This thesis is almost entirely devoted to studying string theory backgrounds characterized by simple geometrical and integrability properties. The archetype of this type of system is given by Wess-Zumino-Witten models, describing string…
We study the phenomenology of a class of models describing modular invariant gaugino condensation in the hidden sector of a low-energy effective theory derived from the heterotic string. Placing simple demands on the resulting observable…
We study relativistic particle, string and membrane theories as defining field theories containing gravity in (0+1), (1+1) and (2+1) spacetime dimensions respectively. We show how an off shell invariance of the massless particle action…
In supersymmetric models with the run-away vacua or with the stable but non-supersymmetric ground state there exist stable field configurations (vacua) which restore one half of supersymmetry and are characterized by constant positive…
We study a supersymmetric deconstructed gauge theory in which a warp factor emerges dynamically, driven by Fayet-Iliopoulos terms. The model is peculiar in that it possesses a global supersymmetry that remains unbroken despite nonvanishing…
Recently the vacuum structure of a large class of four dimensional (supersymmetric) quantum field theories was determined exactly. These theories exhibit a wide range of interesting new physical phenomena. One of the main new insights is…
The moduli space of the Calabi-Yau three-folds, which play a role as superstring ground states, exhibits the same {\em special geometry} that is known from nonlinear sigma models in $N=2$ supergravity theories. We discuss the symmetry…
We perform a systematic string computation of the masses of anomalous U(1) gauge bosons in four-dimensional orientifold vacua, and we study their localization properties in the internal (compactified) space. We find that N=1 supersymmetric…
We introduce a new background field method for N=2 superspace. (We treat projective hyperspace, but similar remarks apply for the harmonic case.) In analogy to N=1, background gauge fields are in the real representation, so the…
Particle physics models where there are large hidden extra dimensions are currently on the focus of an intense activity. The main reason is that these large extra dimensions may come with a TeV scale for quantum gravity (or string theory)…
We consider a theory of gravity with a hidden extra-dimension and metric-dependent torsion. A set of physically motivated constraints are imposed on the geometry so that the torsion stays confined to the extra-dimension and the…
Postulates which lead to Minkowski spacetime are amended in a subtle way, and used to construct a consistent flat spacetime geometry with intrinsic quantum character. Events in the new quantum geometry are described by labels of the form…
Some N=1 gauge theories, including SQED and N_F=1 SQCD have the property that, for arbitrary superpotentials, all stationary points of the potential V = F+D are D-flat. For others, stationary points of V are complex gauge transformationss…
Nonlinear sigma models arise in supergravity theories with or without matter couplings in various dimensions and they are important in understanding the duality symmetries of M-theory. With this motivation in mind, we review the salient…
Gauge coupling unification and the stability of the Higgs vacuum are among two of the cherished features of low-energy supersymmetric models. Putting aside questions of naturalness, supersymmetry might only be realised in nature at very…
We study a three-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric $G_2$ gauge theory with and without fundamental matters. We find that a classical Coulomb branch of the moduli space of vacua is partly lifted by monopole-instantons and the…