Related papers: String Theory Without Branes

Dense distributions of string-like objects in material media are considered in terms of continuum field theory. The strings are assumed to carry a quantized abelian topological charge, such as the Burgers vector of dislocations in solids or…

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 the Matrix Quantum Mechanical formulation of 2D string theory it is possible to introduce arbitrary tachyonic perturbations. In the case when the tachyonic momenta form a lattice, the theory is known to be integrable and, therefore, it…

String theory has not even come close to a complete formulation after half a century of intense research. On the other hand, a number of features of the theory suggest that the theory, once completed, may be a final theory. It is argued in…

Over the past three decades, considerable effort has been devoted to studying the rich and diverse phenomenologies of heterotic strings exhibiting spacetime supersymmetry. Unfortunately, during this same period, there has been relatively…

Many string theories contain states which are not BPS, but are stable due to charge conservation. In many cases the description of these states in the strong coupling limit remains unknown despite the existence of a weakly coupled dual…

We give a pedagogical introduction to string theory, D-branes and p-brane solutions.

A consistent theory of supersymmetry breaking must have a hidden sector, an observable sector, and must be embedded in a locally supersymmetric theory which arises from string theory. For phenomenological reasons it must also transmit…

In an on-shell conformal field theory approach, we find indications of a three-bracket structure for target space coordinates in general closed string backgrounds. This generalizes the appearance of noncommutative gauge theories for open…

We consider string theory in a time dependent orbifold with a null singularity. The singularity separates a contracting universe from an expanding universe, thus constituting a big crunch followed by a big bang. We quantize the theory both…

We introduce and develop the theory of metaparticles. At the classical level, this is a world-line theory with the usual reparameterization invariance and two additional features. The theory is motivated by string theory on compact targets,…

I review the appearance of classical integrable systems as an effective tool for the description of non-perturbative exact results in quantum string and gauge theories. Various aspects of this relation: spectral curves, action-angle…

It has been realised recently that there is no unique way to describe the physical states of a given string theory. In particular, it has been shown that any bosonic string theory can be embedded in a particular $N{=}1$ string background in…

We propose a new general BRST approach to string and string-like theories which have a wider range of applicability than e g the conventional conformal field theory method. The method involves a simple general regularization of all basic…

In this Ph.D. thesis, we study some aspects of strings and branes. We mainly focus on anomalous D-brane couplings and on non-supersymmetric branes. In Chapter 2, we illustrate three key concepts in a field theory context: duality,…

We consider string perturbative expansion in the presence of D-branes imbedded in orbifolded space-time. In the regime where the string coupling is weak and $\alpha'\to 0$, the string perturbative expansion coincides with `t Hooft's large N…

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…

I review certain aspects of Hanany-Witten setups and other approaches used to embed (and solve) gauge theories in string theory. Applications covered include dualities in 4 and 3 dimensions, fixed points in 6 dimensions, phase transitions…

We show the existence of a supersymmetry breaking mechanism in string theory, where N=4 supersymmetry is broken spontaneously to N=2 and N=1 with moduli dependent gravitino masses. The spectrum of the spontaneously broken theory with lower…

We construct a class of supersymmetric vacua of type IIB string theory describing systems of three- and seven-branes non-perturbatively completed by brane instantons. The vacua are specified by a set of holomorphic functions defined over a…