Related papers: Four-dimensional String Compactifications with D-B…

We give an introduction to the statistical approach to studying vacua of string/M theory, and discuss recent results of Ashok and Douglas on counting supersymmetric flux vacua in type IIb Calabi-Yau compactification. To appear in the…

We determine the structure of the Chan-Paton factors of the open strings ending on space filling D-branes in Type II orientifolds. Through the analysis, we obtain a rule concerning possible distribution of O-plane types. The result is…

Using the toroidal compactification of string theory on n-dimensional tori, Tn, we investigate dyonic objects in arbitrary dimensions. First, we present a class of dyonic black solutions formed by two different D-branes using a…

The entire S-matrix elements of four, five and six point functions of D-brane-anti D-brane system are explored. To deal with symmetries of string amplitudes as well as their all order $\alpha'$ corrections we first address a four point…

We analyze the wavefunctions for open strings in warped compactifications, and compute the warped Kahler potential for the light modes of a probe D-brane. This analysis not only applies to the dynamics of D-branes in warped backgrounds, but…

We study the boundary state associated with the decay of an unstable D-brane with uniform electric field, 1>e>0 in the string units. Compactifying the D-brane along the direction of the electric field, we find that the decay process is…

We study string theory propagating on R^6 times K3 by constructing orientifolds of Type IIB string theory compactified on the T^4/Z_N orbifold limits of the K3 surface. This generalises the Z_2 case studied previously. The orientifold…

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 study a matrix version of the purely cubic open string field theory as describing the expansion around the closed string vacuum. Any D-branes in the given closed string background can appear as classical solutions by using the identity…

String duality suggests a fascinating juxtoposition of world-volume and target-space dynamics. This is particularly apparent in the $D$-brane description of stringy solitons that forms a major focus of this article (which is {\it not}…

We derive D-brane gauge theories for C^3/Z_n x Z_n orbifolds with discrete torsion and study the moduli space of a D-brane at a point. We show that, as suggested in previous work, closed string moduli do not fully resolve the singularity,…

Building on earlier work, we construct linear sigma models for strings on curved spaces in the presence of branes. Our models include an extremely general class of brane-worldvolume gauge field configurations. We explain in an accessible…

We give examples of string compactifications to 4d Minkowski space with different amounts of supersymmetry that can be connected by spherical domain walls. The tension of these domain walls is tunably lower than the 4d Planck scale. The…

Following a recent suggestion by Randall and Sundrum, we consider string compactification scenarios in which a compact slice of AdS-space arises as a subspace of the compactification manifold. A specific example is provided by the type II…

We study different phenomenological aspects of compact, D=4, N=1 Type IIB orientifolds considered as models for unification of the standard model and gravity. We discuss the structure of the compactification, string and unification scales…

Recently it was proposed that the ten dimensional tachyonic superstring vacua may serve as good starting points for the construction of viable phenomenological models. Such phenomenologically viable models enlarge the space of possible…

In order to lift the continuous moduli space of string vacua, non-trivial fluxes may be the essential input. In this talk I summarize aspects of two approaches to compactifications in the presence of fluxes: (i) generalized Scherk-Schwarz…

We derive the rules to construct type IIB compact orientifolds in six and four dimensions including D-branes and anti-D-branes. Even though the models are non-supersymmetric due to the presence of the anti-D-branes, we show that it is easy…

We study the type II string vacua with chiral space-time SUSY constructed as asymmetric orbifolds of torus and $ K3 $ compactifications. Despite the fact that all the D-branes are non-BPS in any chiral SUSY vacua, we show that the relevant…

This review is devoted to open strings, and in particular to the often surprising features of their spectra. It follows and summarizes developments that took place mainly at the University of Rome ``Tor Vergata'' over the last decade, and…