Related papers: Fermionic Zero Modes of Supergravity Cosmic String…
Cosmic strings are predicted by many field-theory models, and may have been formed at a symmetry-breaking transition early in the history of the universe, such as that associated with grand unification. They could have important…
We provide a thorough exposition of recent results on the quantum stabilization of cosmic strings. Stabilization occurs through the coupling to a heavy fermion doublet in a reduced version of the standard model. The study combines the…
The Standard Model is the low-energy limit of a microscopic theory which includes extra dimensions and new symmetries. A part of my thesis consisted in constructing a new class of models with two extra dimensions. We showed that these…
Brane inflation in superstring theory predicts that cosmic strings (but not domain walls or monopoles) are produced towards the end of the inflationary epoch. Here, we discuss the production, the spectrum and the evolution of such cosmic…
In this paper, we investigate D-term inflation within the framework of supergravity, employing the minimal K\"{a}hler potential. Following previous studies that revealed that this model can overcome the $\eta$-problem found in F-term…
It is pointed out that various types of cosmic string solutions that exist in nonsupersymmetric and globally supersymmetric theories, such as D-type gauge strings, F-type global and gauge strings, and superconducting Witten strings, also…
In these lectures, I review the current status of cosmic strings and cosmic superstrings. I first discuss topological defects in the context of Grand Unified Theories, focusing in particular in cosmic strings arising as gauge theory…
We investigate a static, cylindrically symmetric cosmic string on the brane without a perturbative approximation. We find there could be a (large) enhancement of the (effective) string tension when the energy density at the center of the…
In this article we study in detail the supersymmetric structures that underlie the system of fermionic zero modes around a superconducting cosmic string. Particularly, we extend the analysis existing in the literature on the one dimensional…
We study the spectrum of fermionic modes on cosmic string loops. We find no fermionic zero modes nor massive bound states - this implies that vortons stabilized by fermionic currents do not exist. We have also studied kink-(anti)kink and…
Axionic cosmic string solutions are investigated in a superstring motivated model with a pseudo-anomalous U(1) gauge symmetry. The inclusion of a gauge field and spatially varying dilaton allow local defect solutions with finite energy per…
We argue that traditional methods of compactification of string theory make it very difficult to understand how the cosmological constant becomes zero. String inspired models can give zero cosmological constant after fine tuning but since…
In these lectures I discuss the possibility that superstrings of cosmic length might exist and be observable. I first review the original idea of cosmic strings arising as gauge theory solitons, and discuss in particular their network…
We consider a toroidal configuration of cosmic string in 3+1 dimensions in an abelian Higgs model, a compactification of the Nielsen-Olesen string. This object is classically unstable. We explicitly compute the number of permitted zero…
We show that if there is a realistic 4-d string, the dilaton and moduli supermultiplets will generically acquire a small mass O(m_{3/2}), providing the only vacuum-independent evidence of low-energy physics in string theory beyond the…
We provide a thorough exposition, including technical and numerical details, of previously published results on the quantum stabilization of cosmic strings. Stabilization occurs through the coupling to a heavy fermion doublet in a reduced…
Quasi-realistic string models in the free fermionic formulation typically contain an anomalous U(1), which gives rise to a Fayet-Iliopoulos D-term that breaks supersymmetry at the one--loop level in string perturbation theory. Supersymmetry…
Cosmic superstrings are expected to be formed at the end of brane inflation, within the context of brane-world cosmological models inspired from string theory. By studying properties of cosmic suprestring networks, and comparing their…
This thesis is essentially organized in two parts: braneworlds and higher dimensional black objects with a cosmological constant. We present solitonic braneworld models where the brane are inflating and with the presence of a cosmological…
We derive the zero mode solutions for a Majorana fermion in the background of a cosmic string and contrast it with the zero mode solution for a (neutral) Dirac fermion. A Majorana zero mode carries no vector or axial charge, and it cannot…