Related papers: Effective supergravity descriptions of superstring…
We discuss some basic aspects of effective field theory applied to supergravity theories which arise in the low-energy limit of string theory. Our discussion is particularly relevant to the effective field theories of no-scale…
We study the possibility of using the D-term associated to an anomalous U(1) for the uplifting of AdS vacua (to dS or Minkowski vacua) in effective supergravities arising from string theories, particularly in the type IIB context put…
We construct two-dimensional supergravity theories endowed with a positive cosmological constant, that admit de Sitter vacua. We consider the cases of $\mathcal{N}=1$ as well as $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetry, and couple the supergravity to…
In the present talk I shall review the construction of N=2 supergravity models exhibiting stable de Sitter vacua. These solutions represent the first instance of stable backgrounds with positive cosmological constant in the framework of…
We discuss some recent attempts to reconcile cosmology with supergravity and M/string theory. First of all, we point out that in extended supergravities the scalar masses are quantized in terms of the cosmological constant in de Sitter…
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…
These lectures aim to provide a global picture of the spaces of consistent quantum supergravity theories and string vacua in higher dimensions. The lectures focus on theories in the even dimensions 10, 8, and 6. Supersymmetry, along with…
The well known N=2 string theory describes self-dual gravity, as was shown by Ooguri and Vafa sometime ago. In search of a variant of this theory which would describe self-dual supergravity in 2+2 dimensions, we have constructed two new N=2…
In the recent times a lot of effort has been devoted to improve our knowledge about the space of string theory vacua (``the landscape'') to find statistical grounds to justify how and why the theory selects its vacuum. Particularly…
Completing earlier work on three dimensional (3D) N=1 supergravity with curvature-squared terms, we construct the general supergravity extension of cosmological massive gravity theories. We expand about supersymmetric anti-de Sitter vacua,…
The connection between Superstring theory and the low--energy world is analyzed. In particular, the soft Supersymmetry--breaking terms arising in Supergravity theories coming from Superstrings are computed. Several solutions proposed to…
A new class of metastable de Sitter vacua is presented and analyzed in N =1 supergravity and string theory with tunable (infinitesimally small) value of the cosmological constant. They are based on a gauged R-symmetry and the minimal…
We review the prospect of obtaining tree-level de Sitter (dS) vacua and slow-roll inflation models in string compactifications. Restricting ourselves to the closed string sector and assuming the absence of NSNS-sources, we classify the…
We provide the M-theory uplift of de Sitter vacua of SO(5,3) and SO(4,4) gaugings of maximal supergravity in 4 dimensions. We find new non-compact backgrounds that are squashed hyperboloids with non-trivial flux for the 3-form potential.…
We derive highly constraining no-go theorems for classical de Sitter backgrounds of string theory, with parallel sources; this should impact the embedding of cosmological models. We study ten-dimensional vacua of type II supergravities with…
The four-dimensional superstring solutions define at low energy effective supergravity theories. A class of them extends successfully the validity of the standard model up to the string scale (${\cal O}(10^{17})~TeV$). We stress the…
We discuss a possible compactification of a higher-dimensional gravitational theory, which give rise to a de Sitter or an accelerating universe, to the extent that it can describe a low energy limit of string theory. Such analysis can be…
We present a model of slow-roll inflation in the context of effective Supergravities arising from string theories. The uplifting of the potential (to generate dS or Minkowski vacua) is provided by the D-term associated to an anomalous U(1),…
In these two lectures, delivered at the XXXVII Karpacz Winter School, February 2001, I review some applications of superspace in various topics related to string theory and M-theory. The first lecture is mainly devoted to descriptions of…
The superspace formalism for $\mathcal{N}=1$ supergravity in four dimensions is a powerful geometric setting to engineer off-shell supergravity-matter theories, including higher-derivative couplings. This review provides a unified…