Related papers: Current Directions in String Theory and Abstract S…
I describe our understanding of physics near the planck length, in particular the great progress of the last four years in string theory. Superstring theory, and a recent extension called M theory, are leading candidates for a quantum…
A number of different approaches to quantum gravity are at least partly phenomenologically characterized by their treatment of Lorentz symmetry, in particular whether the symmetry is exact or modified/broken at the smallest scales. For…
In the low-energy limit, string theory has two remarkable symmetries, O(d,d+p) and SL(2,R). We illustrate the use of these transformations as techniques to generate new solutions by applying them to the Taub--NUT metric.
This paper tentatively conjectures a possible physical picture that may help explain links between quantum field theories and string theories. A correspondence might occur if the stringy parameters $\tau $ and $\sigma_i $ are interpreted as…
A fundamental task for the heterotic superstring theory is the determination of the effective action describing the physics of massless string excitations at low energies. This is necessary for the phenomenological applications of string…
Recent insights from string theory and supergravity on the macroscopic and the microscopic description of black hole entropy are discussed.
Effective field theories with (large) extra dimensions are studied within a physical regularization scheme provided by string theory. Explicit string calculations then allow us to consistently analyze the ultraviolet sensitivity of…
1. Preliminaries. 2. Heterotic string and motivations for large volume compactifications; 2.1 Gauge coupling unification; 2.2 Supersymmetry breaking by compactification. 3. M-theory on S^1/Z_2 \times Calabi-Yau. 4. Type I/I' string theory…
I discuss a new approach to constructing lattices for gauge theories with extended supersymmetry. The lattice theories themselves respect certain supersymmetries, which in many cases allows the target theory to be obtained in the continuum…
We investigate properties of several string networks in $D < 10$ which carry electric currents as well as electrostatic charge densities. We show the electric-current conservations as well as the force-balance condition of the string…
In string theory the coupling ``constants'' appearing in the low-energy effective Lagrangian are determined by the vacuum expectation values of some (a priori) massless scalar fields (dilaton, moduli). This naturally leads one to expect a…
Recently, a new framework for solving the hierarchy problem has been proposed which does not rely on low energy supersymmetry or technicolor. The gravitational and gauge interactions unite at the electroweak scale, and the observed weakness…
The dynamics of superstring, supergravity and M theories and their compactifications are probed by studying the various perturbation theories that emerge in the strong and weak coupling limits for various directions in coupling constant…
Much of modern string theory research concerns AdS/CFT duality, or more generally, gauge/gravity duality. The main subjects are a) Testing and understanding such dualities by exploring how they work for systems with a lot of supersymmetry…
I review recent work concerning the microphysics of cosmic string solutions of N=1 supersymmetric gauge field theories.
We briefly cover the early history of supersymmetry, describe the relation of SUSY quantum field theories to superstring theories and explain why they are considered a likely tool to describe the phenomenology of high energy particle theory…
String theory in two-dimensional spacetime illuminates two main threads of recent development in string theory: (1) Open/closed string duality, and (2) Tachyon condensation. In two dimensions, many aspects of these phenomena can be explored…
A long-standing problem in string phenomenology has been the fact that the string unification scale disagrees with the GUT scale obtained by extrapolating low-energy data within the framework of the minimal supersymmetric standard model…
An overview of supersymmetry and its different applications is presented. We motivate supersymmetry in particle physics. We then explain how supersymmetry helps us analyze field theories exactly, and what dynamical lessons these solutions…
Supersymmetry and Grand Unification are the two most promising directions for physics beyond the Standard Model. They receive indirect experimental support from the apparent lightness of the Higgs boson, the values of the gauge couplings…