Related papers: String Propagation in Gravitational Wave Backgroun…
We find the spectrum P(w)dw of the gravitational wave background produced in the early universe in string theory. We work in the framework of String Driven Cosmology, whose scale factors are computed with the low-energy effective string…
Point particles fall freely along geodesics; strings do not. In string theory all probes of spacetime structure, including photons, are extended objects and therefore always subject to tidal forces. We illustrate how string theory modifies…
We consider the quantum mechanics of Einstein gravity linearised about flat spacetime. The two transverse-traceless components of the metric perturbation are the true physical degrees of freedom. They appear in the quantum theory as free…
The propagation of gravitational waves on the background of a nonperturbative vacuum of a spinor field is considered. It is shown that there are several distinctive features in comparison with the propagation of plane gravitational waves…
In the context of the black hole/string transition, it is useful to produce Euclidean string backgrounds representing hot and self-gravitating strings. We utilise analytical and numerical methods to find a smooth, stationary rotating…
The main limitations of string field theory arise because its present formulation requires a background representing a classical solution, a background defined by a strictly conformally invariant theory. Here we sketch a construction for a…
In these introductory lectures we summarize some basic facts and techniques about perturbative string theory (sections 1 to 6). These are further developed (sections 7 and 8) for describing string propagation in the presence of…
String backgrounds are described as purely geometric objects related to moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces, in the spirit of Segal's definition of a conformal field theory. Relations with conformal field theory, topological field theory and…
This thesis is almost entirely devoted to studying string theory backgrounds characterized by simple geometrical and integrability properties. The archetype of this type of system is given by Wess-Zumino-Witten models, describing string…
A model of a straight superconducting global cosmic string is examined in a setting wherein the string supports a charge/current pulse described by a travelling wave along the string. Linearized field equations are obtained for fluctuations…
The presence of fields with negative mass-squared typically leads to some form of instability in standard field theories. The observation that, at least in the light-cone gauge, strings propagating in plane wave spacetimes can have…
This paper is a self contained review of the Loop Variable approach to string theory. The Exact Renormalization Group is applied to a world sheet theory describing string propagation in a general background involving both massless and…
We argue that the dielectric effect, mostly studied for systems of coincident D-branes, is also extendible to configurations of multiple gravitational waves. We provide some evidence that Matrix string theory has an alternative…
This is an introduction to two-dimensional conformal field theory and its applications in string theory. Modern concepts of conformal field theory are explained, and it is outlined how they are used in recent studies of D-branes in the…
String propagation on a curved background defines an embedding problem of surfaces in differential geometry. Using this, we show that in a wide class of backgrounds the classical dynamics of the physical degrees of freedom of the string…
We investigate algebraic structure of light-cone string field theory which respects the spacetime supersymmetry su(2|2). Extracting building blocks from the explicit oscillator expressions of light-cone superstring field theory on the…
Recently it was shown that an inflationary background can be realized by any $p$-form field non-minimally coupled to gravity. In this paper, we study gravitational waves generated during p-form inflation. Even though the background…
Massive spin-2 fields in addition to the standard massless graviton arise naturally in extensions of General Relativity, such as massive bigravity or models with extra dimensions. This work explores the observational signatures of these…
Hidden symmetries of non-relativistic $\mathfrak{so} (2,1)\cong \mathfrak{sl}(2, {\mathbb R})$ invariant systems in a cosmic string background are studied using the conformal bridge transformation. Geometric properties of this background…
The dynamics of a gravitational wave propagating through a cosmic gauge field are dramatically different than in vacuum. We show that a gravitational wave acquires an effective mass, is birefringent, and its normal modes are a linear…