Related papers: Toward the End of Time
In the brane-world scenario, our universe is understood as a three dimensional hypersurface embedded in a higher dimensional space-time. The fluctuations of the brane along the extra dimensions are seen from the four-dimensional point of…
While Quantum Gravity remains elusive and Quantum Field Theory retains the interpretational difficulties of Quantum Mechanics, we have introduced an alternate approach to the unification of particles, fields, space and time, suggesting that…
We discuss theories in which the standard-model particles are localized on a brane embedded in space-time with large compact extra dimensions, whereas gravity propagates in the bulk. In addition to the ground state corresponding to a…
I discuss a specific model of space-time foam, inspired by the modern non-perturbative approach to string theory (D-branes). The model views our world as a three brane, intersecting with D-particles that represent stringy quantum gravity…
We present classical and quantum dynamics of a test particle in the compactified Milne space. Background spacetime includes one compact space dimension undergoing contraction to a point followed by expansion. Quantization consists in…
In the context of a toy model we discuss the phenomenon of colliding five-branes, with two of the extra space dimensions compactified on tori. In one of the branes (hidden world) the torus is magnetised. Assuming opposite-tension branes, we…
In this paper we endeavour to find a connection between the non-commutative nature of space time and the {\it zero point field}. We observe that extra effects come into play when we take into account the Compton scale effects in such a…
We present a novel solution to the nature and formation of the initial state of the Universe. It derives from the physics of a generally covariant extension of Matrix theory. We focus on the dynamical state space of this background…
Within some approaches to loop quantum cosmology, the existence of an Euclidean phase at high density has been suggested. In this article, we try to explain clearly what are the observable consequences of this possible disappearance of…
We study at the classical and quantum mechanical level the time-dependent Yang-Mills theory that one obtains via the generalisation of discrete light-cone quantisation to singular homogeneous plane waves. The non-Abelian nature of this…
We study the spacetime decay to nothing in string theory and M-theory. First we recall a nonsupersymmetric version of heterotic M-theory, in which bubbles of nothing -- connecting the two E_8 boundaries by a throat -- are expected to be…
We investigate a Friedmann universe filled with a tachyon scalar field, which behaves as dustlike matter in the past, while it is able to accelerate the expansion rate of the universe at late times. The comparison with type Ia supernovae…
Brane-world cosmology is motivated by recent developments in string/M-theory and offers a new perspective on the hierarchy problem. In the brane-world scenario, our Universe is a four-dimensional subspace or {\em brane} embedded in a…
We construct a class of analytic solutions with two free parameters to the five-dimensional Einstein field equations, which represents the collision of two timelike 3-branes. We study the local and global properties of the spacetime, and…
We conjecture that the end point of bulk closed string tachyon decay at any non-zero coupling, is the annihilation of space time by Witten's bubble of nothing, resulting in a topological phase of the theory. In support of this we present a…
We propose uncertainty relations for the different coordinates of spacetime events, motivated by Heisenberg's principle and by Einstein's theory of classical gravity. A model of Quantum Spacetime is then discussed where the commutation…
Quantum gravity (or quantum spacetime) is to unify general relativity and quantum mechanics into a single theoretical framework and presented as the most important open puzzle in fundamental physics. The development of a microscopic theory…
Recently it was observed that the hyperbolic compactification of M/string theory related to S-branes may lead to a transient period of acceleration of the universe. We study time evolution of the corresponding effective 4d cosmological…
General spinning brane bound states are constructed, along with their near-horizon limits which are relevant as dual descriptions of non-commutative field theories. For the spinning D-brane world volume theories with a B-field a general…
Spacelike branes are new time-dependent systems to explore and it has been observed that related supergravity solutions can be obtained by analytically continuing known D-brane solutions. Here we show that analytic continuation of known…