Related papers: Branes vs. GUTS: challenges for string inspired ph…
One cannot yet point to any firm string prediction. While many approximate string ground states are known with interesting properties, we do not have any argument that one or another describes what we observe around us, and for reasons…
An ensemble of short open strings in equilibrium with the heat bath provided by the Euclidean worldvolume of a stack of Dbranes undergoes a thermal phase transition to a long string phase. The transition temperature is just below the string…
String theory is at the moment the only advanced approach to a unification of all interactions, including gravity. But, in spite of the more than thirty years of its existence, it does not make any empirically testable predictions, and it…
We present a class of solvable models that resemble string theories in many respects but have a strikingly different non-perturbative sector. In particular, there are no exponentially small contributions to perturbation theory in the string…
Motivated by the recently reported diphoton excess at 750 GeV observed by both CMS and ATLAS, we study string-based particle physics models which can accommodate this signal. Quite remarkably, although Grand Unified Theories in F-theory…
Over the past decade it has become clear that fundamental strings are not the only fundamental degrees of freedom in string theory. D-branes are also part of the spectrum of fundamental states. In this paper we explore some possible effects…
I discuss the axiomatic framework of (tree-level) associative open string field theory in the presence of D-branes by considering the natural extension of the case of a single boundary sector. This leads to a formulation which is intimately…
String theories with branes can often be generalized by adding brane-antibrane pairs. We explore the cancellation of anomalies in this more general context, extending the familiar anomaly-cancelling mechanisms, both for ten-dimensional…
In these lectures, two different aspects of brane world scenarios in 5d gravity or string theory are discussed. In the first two lectures, work on how warped compactifications of 5d gravity theories can change the guise of the hierarchy…
We propose a string-theoretic ansatz describing the dynamics of SU(N) Yang-Mills theories in the limit of large N in D=4. The construction uses in a crucial way open-string vertex operators that describe non-perturbative brane dynamics.…
We motivate and apply a bottom-up approach to string phenomenology, which aims to construct the Standard Model as a decoupled world-volume theory on a D3-brane. As a concrete proposal for such a construction, we consider a single probe…
We discuss some aspects of the relation between space-time properties of branes in string theory, and the gauge theory on their worldvolume, for models invariant under four supercharges in three and four dimensions. We show that a simple…
We describe how the D-brane spectra of the various ten-dimensional string theories can be related to general properties of the open-closed duality, encoded in the $S$ and $P$ matrices of the conformal field theory. We also complete the…
The state of the art in D-brane model building is briefly reviewed, focusing on recent achievements in the construction of D=4 N = 1 type II string vacua with semi-realistic gauge sectors. Such progress relies on a better understanding of…
We show how the topological string partition function, which is known to capture the degeneracies of a gas of BPS spinning M2-branes in M-theory compactified to 5 dimensions, is related to a 4-dimensional D-brane system that consists of…
This paper discusses the minimal quiver gauge theory embedding of the standard model that could arise from brane world type string theory constructions. It is based on the low energy effective field theory of D-branes in the perturbative…
I review certain aspects of Hanany-Witten setups and other approaches used to embed (and solve) gauge theories in string theory. Applications covered include dualities in 4 and 3 dimensions, fixed points in 6 dimensions, phase transitions…
We revisit the construction of the $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric trinification models with gauge group $\mathrm{U}(3)_C\times \mathrm{U}(3)_L \times \mathrm{U}(3)_R$ in Type IIA string theory on $\mathbf{T^6/(\mathbb{Z}_2\times…
We probe the effective worldvolume theory of a set of coinciding D-branes by switching on constant electro-magnetic fields on them. The comparison of the mass spectrum predicted by string theory with the mass spectrum obtained from the…
A study is made of the implications of heterotic string $T$-duality and extended gauge symmetry for the conjectured equivalence of heterotic and Type I superstrings. While at first sight heterotic string world-sheet dynamics appears to…