Related papers: Effective description of axion defects

Field theoretic models possessing a global internal fermionic shift symmetry are considered. When such a symmetry is realized locally, spin 3/2 fields appear naturally as gauge fields. Implementation of the gauging procedure requires not…

In higher dimensional models where the gauge and gravity fields live in the bulk and the matter fields only in a brane, we point out the importance of the brane (transverse) coordinate modes, which are the Nambu-Goldstone bosons appearing…

We use gauge/string duality to model some hybrid pseudo-potentials in a pure SU(N) gauge theory. The pseudo-potentials under consideration can't be described by a single Nambu-Goto string. This is why we call them "exotic". A comparison…

Geometric structures and dualities arise naturally in quantum field theories and string theory. In fact, these tools become very useful when studying strong coupling effects, where standard perturbative techniques can no longer be used. In…

While axions seem ubiquitous in critical string theories, whether they might survive in any string theoretic description of nature is a difficult question. With some mild assumptions, one can frame the issues in the case that there is an…

We study covariant open bosonic string field theory in lightcone gauge. When lightcone gauge is well-defined, we find two results. First, the vertices of the gauge-fixed action consist of Mandelstam diagrams with stubs covering specific…

In rigid supersymmetry, generic models of dynamical supersymmetry breaking contain a light Goldstone boson, called the R axion. We show that supergravity effects explicitly break the R symmetry and give mass to the R axion. For visible and…

A new term in the p-adic world-sheet action is proposed, which couples a constant B-field to the boundary of the world-sheet at disk level. The induced deformation of tachyon scattering amplitudes by star-products is derived. This is in…

Superstring theories are very promising theoretically, but the enormous landscape of string vacua and the (likely) very large underlying string scale imply that they may never be tested directly. Nevertheless, concrete constructions…

We investigate classical strings defined by the Nambu-Goto action with the boundary term added. We demonstrate that the latter term has a significant bearing on the string dynamics. It is confirmed that new action terms that depend on…

We study a class of four-dimensional N=1 heterotic string theories which have nontrivial quantum dynamics arising from asymptotically free gauge groups. These models are obtained by orbifolding 4d N=2 heterotic/type II dual pairs by…

We show that string moduli have axion-philic nature owing to the model-insensitive derivative interactions arising from the Kaehler potential. The decay of a modulus into stringy axions occurs without suppression by the mass of final…

We relate, in 10 and 11 dimensional supergravities, configurations of intersecting closed branes with vanishing binding energy to configurations where one of the branes opens and has its boundaries attached to the other. These boundaries…

We study Z_N strings in nonabelian gauge theories, when they can be considered as domain walls compactified on a cylinder and stabilized by the flux inside. To make the wall vortex approximation reliable, we must take the 't Hooft large N…

The recent discovery of an explicit conformal field theory description of Type II $p$-branes makes it possible to investigate the existence of bound states of such objects. In particular, it is possible with reasonable precision to verify…

Gravitational properties of domain walls in fundamental theory and their implications for the trapping of gravity are reviewed. In particular, the difficulties to embed gravity trapping configurations within gauged supergravity is reviewed…

The perturbative analysis of models of open and closed superstrings presents a number of surprises. For instance, variable numbers of antisymmetric tensors ensure their consistency via generalized Green-Schwarz cancellations and a novel…

We consider tachyonic string-field fluctuations about a Dp-brane background in the geometrical (CFT) formulation of Vacuum String Field Theory. We then extend this analysis to the case of a background B-field. We find that the standard…

It is an old speculation that SU(N) gauge theory can alternatively be formulated as a string theory. Recently this subject has been revived, in the wake of the discovery of D-branes. In particular, it has been argued that at least some…

We consider discrete gauge symmetries in D dimensions arising as remnants of broken continuous gauge symmetries carried by general antisymmetric tensor fields, rather than by standard 1-forms. The lagrangian for such a general ${\bf Z}_p$…