Related papers: Stable Non-Supersymmetric Vacua in the Moduli Spac…
In this thesis we investigate some aspects of the dramatic consequences of supersymmetry breaking on string vacua. In particular, we focus on the issue of vacuum stability in ten-dimensional string models with broken, or without,…
We review some aspects of the dramatic consequences of supersymmetry breaking on string vacua. In particular, we focus on the issue of vacuum stability in ten-dimensional string models with broken, or without, supersymmetry, whose…
We explore various non-supersymmetric type II string vacua constructed based on asymmetric orbifolds of tori with vanishing cosmological constant at the one loop. The string vacua we present are modifications of the models studied in…
We review the construction of non-supersymmetric open string vacua in various dimensions. They can be obtained either projecting the (compactified) non-supersymmetric 0B theory, or applying the Scherk-Schwarz mechanism to open strings.…
In a recent paper [1] we showed that N=1 supersymmetric QCD in the presence of certain superpotential deformations has a rich landscape of supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric vacua. In this paper we embed this theory in string theory as a…
String theory relies on spacetime supersymmetry to guarantee the existence of stable vacua. In this review, we survey two features of non-supersymmetric strings that challenge both aspects: the appearance of tachyons and worldsheet…
We study moduli stabilisation in four-dimensional $N=1$ supergravity theories which originate from compactifications of the heterotic string on certain manifolds with $SU(3)$ structure. These theories have a non-trivial superpotential…
We consider intersecting brane configurations realizing N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories broken to N=1 by multitrace superpotentials, and softly to N=0. We analyze, in the framework of M5-brane wrapping a curve, the supersymmetric vacua…
In addition to the familiar string theories with spacetime supersymmetry, there exist a number of non-supersymmetric ten-dimensional superstrings. Nearly all of these theories have closed string tachyons, indicating a misidentification of…
The consistency of string theory as a theory of gravity does not rely on the presence of spacetime supersymmetry; however, its absence leads to the emergence of tadpole diagrams in the on-shell worldsheet formulation, thus undermining our…
We study marginal and relevant supersymmetric deformations of the N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions. Our primary innovation is the interpretation of the moduli spaces of vacua of these theories as non-commutative spaces. The…
We study certain supersymmetry breaking deformations of linear dilaton backgrounds in different dimensions. In some cases, the deformed theory has bulk closed strings tachyons. In other cases there are no bulk tachyons, but there are…
In this Thesis we investigate properties of stability, rigidity and unitarity of the string landscape in ten and lower dimensions. The dissertation explores these aspects by intertwining a detailed analysis of string vacua, with and without…
We argue that a class of ``non-critical superstring'' vacua is holographically related to the (non-gravitational) theory obtained by studying string theory on a singular Calabi-Yau manifold in the decoupling limit $g_s\to 0$. In two…
We construct new string vacua featuring Brane Supersymmetry Breaking, based on $T^4/\mathbb{Z}_N$ orientifolds with $\text{O}5_+$ planes and $\overline{\text{D}5}$ branes. Differently from the original construction, in these vacua the…
Making use of non-perturbative U-duality symmetries of type II strings we construct new `superstring' vacua in three dimensions with N=1 supersymmetry. This has an interpretation as compactifying formally from 13 dimensions (S-theory) on…
We present a detailed analysis of non-supersymmetric spacetime varying string vacua which can lead to an exponential hierarchy between the electroweak and the gravitational scales. In particular, we identify a limit in which these vacua can…
We study supersymmetric AdS$_7$ vacua of massive type IIA string theory, which were argued to describe the near-horizon limit of NS5/D6/D8-brane intersections and to be holographically dual to 6D $(1,0)$ theories. We show, for the case…
We study the SO(3)-invariant relevant deformations of N=4 SU(N) gauge theory using the methods of Polchinski and Strassler. We present the region of parameter space where the non-supersymmetric vacuum is still described by stable…
We consider closed string tachyons localized at the fixed points of noncompact nonsupersymmetric orbifolds. We argue that tachyon condensation drives these orbifolds to flat space or supersymmetric ALE spaces. The decay proceeds via an…