Related papers: Little String Theory from a Double-Scaled Matrix M…
String theory is the most promising candidate for the theory unifying all interactions including gravity. It has an extremely difficult dynamics. Therefore, it is useful to study some its simplifications. One of them is non-critical string…
We study the system of M2-branes suspended between parallel M5-branes using ABJM model with a natural half-BPS boundary condition. For small separation between M5-branes, the worldvolume theory is shown to reduce to a 2D N=(4,4) super…
The issue of justifying the matrix-theory proposal is revisited. We first discuss how the matrix-string theory is derived directly starting from the eleven dimensional supermembrane wrapped around a circle of radius $R=g_s\ell_s$, without…
We consider matrix models exhibiting open-closed string duality in two-dimensional string theories with various amounts of supersymmetry. In particular, a relationship between matrix models in the $\beta = 2$ Wigner-Dyson class and models…
The D2brane-anti-D2brane system is described in the framework of BFSS Matrix model and noncommutative (NC) gauge theory. The physical spectrum of fields is found by appropriate gauge fixing. The exact tachyon potential is computed in terms…
Low energy absorption cross-sections for various particles falling into extreme non-dilatonic branes are calculated using string theory and world-volume field theory methods. The results are compared with classical absorption by the…
We discuss semiclassical quantization of closed superstrings in AdS_5 x S^5. We consider two basic examples: point-like string boosted along large circle of S^5 and folded string rotating in AdS_5. In the first case we clarify the general…
Guided by the naturalness criterion for an exponentially small cosmological constant, we present a string theory motivated 4-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=1$ non-linear supergravity model (or its linear version with a nilpotent superfield) with…
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 exhibit exact conformal field theory descriptions of SO(N) and Sp(N) pairs of Seiberg-dual gauge theories within string theory. The N=1 gauge theories with flavour are realized as low energy limits of the worldvolume theories on D-branes…
Gravity duals for little string theories --- which give rise to four-dimensional theories that undergo permanent confinement in the infrared --- have not been studied in great detail. We address this question in the framework of heterotic…
We study supersymmetric intersections of NS5-, D6- and D8-branes in type IIA string theory. We focus on the supergravity description of this system and identify a "near horizon" limit in which we recover the recently classified…
We construct two new SL(2,Z) invariant vacua of type IIB string theory which are bound states of $(p,q)$ strings with $(m,n)$ 5-branes, written as ((F, D1), (NS5, D5)) and preserve 1/4 of the full space-time supersymmetries. For the first…
Input from QCD and string theory is used in order to elucidate basic features of the string theory dual of QCD, It is argued that the relevant string theory is a five-dimensional version of the type-0 superstring. The vacuum solution is…
A simple, KKLT-like construction of de Sitter vacua in type IIA string theory is presented in an STU model with guidance from string theory U-duality and with an uplifting anti-D6-brane. In four dimensions the model is reduced to…
We consider, in a string theory framework, physical processes of phenomenological interest in models with a low string scale. The amplitudes we study involve tree-level virtual gravitational exchange, divergent in a field-theoretical…
We show that a unique, most probable and stable solution for the wavefunction of the universe, with a very small cosmological constant $\Lambda_1 \simeq (\frac{\pi}{l_p N})^2$, can be predicted from the supersymmetric minisuperspace with…
We propose a framework where the string scale as well as all compact dimensions are at the electroweak scale $\sim$ TeV$^{-1}$. The weakness of gravity is attributed to the small value of the string coupling $g_s \sim 10^{-16}$, presumably…
Recent investigations involving the decay of unstable D-branes in string theory suggest that the tree level open string theory which describes the dynamics of the D-brane already knows about the closed string states produced in the decay of…
We continue our study of symmetries of a class of little string theories of A-type, which are engineered by $N$ parallel M5-branes probing a flat transverse space. Extending the analysis of the companion paper, we discuss the part of the…