Related papers: Does string theory predict an open universe?
We study the false vacuum decay and bubble nucleation in the presence of a cosmic string in dS spacetime. A cosmic string induces a deficit angle in spacetime around itself so the nucleated bubble has the shape of a rugby ball. Working in…
We describe the results of high-resolution numerical simulations of string-induced structure formation in open universes and those with a non-zero cosmological constant. For models with $\Gamma = \Omega h = 0.1 - 0.2$ and a cold dark matter…
String theory on D-brane backgrounds is open-closed string theory. Given the relevance of this fact, we give details and elaborate upon our earlier construction of oriented open-closed string field theory. In order to incorporate explicitly…
Negative mass brane-like objects known as orientifolds are crucial in the construction of all presently understood realistic string compactifications and I review in general the link between negative energy objects and the existence of a…
This is a short account, based on a talk given at the 2024 Moriond Cosmology Conference, of where and why string theory matters in early universe cosmology. It is written for a cosmology audience predisposed to be at best sceptical, and at…
We consider vacuum tunneling of a new kind where the false vacua are not translationally invariant, but have topological defects that break some of their translational symmetries. In the particular case where the topological defects are…
In what has become a standard eternal inflation picture of the string landscape there are many problematic consequences and a difficulty defining probabilities for the occurrence of each type of universe. One feature in particular that…
We review recent work in which compactifications of string and M theory are constructed in which all scalar fields (moduli) are massive, and supersymmetry is broken with a small positive cosmological constant, features needed to reproduce…
The transcendental expectation of string theory is that the nature of the fundamental forces, particle spectra and masses, together with coupling constants, is uniquely determined by mathematical and logical consistency, non-empirically,…
Arguably the simplest model of a cosmological singularity in string theory, the Lorentzian orbifold $\Real^{1,1}/boost$ is known to lead to severe divergences in scattering amplitudes of untwisted states, indicating a large backreaction…
It has recently been argued that string theory does not admit de Sitter vacua. This would imply that the current accelerated expansion of the universe is not driven by a cosmological constant (or vacuum energy) but by other means such as a…
We note that there is an exception to the general arguments that no falsifiable predictions can be made, on the basis of of presently available data, by applying the weak anthropic principle (WAP) to the landscape of string theory. If there…
We study the evolution of (phantom) dark energy universe by taking into account the higher-order string corrections to Einstein-Hilbert action with a fixed dilaton. While the presence of a cosmological constant gives stable de-Sitter fixed…
In the string landscape picture, the effective potential is characterized by an enormous number of local minima of which only a minuscule fraction are suitable for the evolution of life. In this "multiverse", random transitions are…
We investigate Wilsonian effective field theory as a model for the construction of the tachyon potential and nonperturbative vacua in closed string field theory. In a number of cases we are able to find the effective potential exactly, and…
Motivated by the early discovery of the gigantic landscape of string theory vacua, in recent years people switched direction to try to find constraints on low energy effective field theories from UV-complete descriptions for example quantum…
We consider new cosmological solutions with a collapsing, an intermediate and an expanding phase. The boundary between the expanding (collapsing) phase and the intermediate phase is seen by comoving observers as a cosmological past (future)…
I examine some non-anthropic approaches to the string landscape. These approaches are based on finding the initial conditions of the universe using the wavefunction of the multiverse to select the most probable vacuum out of this landscape.…
We discuss the obstacles for defining a set of observable quantities analogous to an S-matrix which are needed to formulate string theory in an accelerating universe. We show that the quintessence models with the equations of state $-1 < w…
The landscape of low-energy effective field theories stemming from string theory is too vast for a systematic exploration. However, the meadows of the string landscape may be fertile ground for the application of machine learning…