Related papers: UNIVERSAL STRING AND SMALL $N=4$ SUPERSTRING
The subject of this thesis are various ways to construct four-dimensional quantum field theories from string theory. In a first part we study the generation of a supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, coupled to an adjoint chiral superfield,…
In four decades of string theory research, only a handful of non-supersymmetric tachyon-free strings with only one neutral scalar at tree level were found. We construct new such non-supersymmetric tachyon-free string theories using…
The N=2 string is examined in dimensions above the critical dimension (D=4) in a linear dilaton background. We demonstrate that string states in this background propagate in a single physical time dimension, as opposed to two such…
The quantum worldsheet dynamics of vortex strings contains information about the 4d non-Abelian gauge theory in which the string lives. Here I tell this story. The string worldsheet theory is typically some variant of the CP^{N-1}…
We explain, in a slightly modified form, an old construction allowing to reformulate the U(N) gauge theory defined on a D-dimensional lattice as a theory of lattice strings (a statistical model of random surfaces). The world surface of the…
The topic of cosmic strings provides a bridge between the physics of the very small and the very large. They are predicted by some unified theories of particle interactions. If they exist, they may help to explain some of the largest-scale…
Supersymmetry breaking in string theory is expected to occur when moduli fields acquire non-trivial expectation values. In the early universe these fields start out displaced from their final destinations. I present some recent ideas about…
We redo the quantization of the N=4 string, taking into account the reducibility of the constraints. The result is equivalent to the N=2 string, with critical dimension D=4 and signature (++--). The N=4 formulation has several advantages:…
Cosmic strings are linear concentrations of energy that form whenever phase transitions in the early universe break axial symmetries as originally shown by Kibble. They are the result of frustrated order in the quantum fields responsible…
We discuss the continuum field theory limit of the physical scenario described in Ref. [1], the universe arising from the interpretation of the most general collection of logical codes in terms of distributions of units of energy along…
We consider a conformal system of a string and a particle defined in D=10+2 space-time dimensions. The extra time-like dimension is a gauge artifact and can be eliminated by choosing a gauge in which the SO(10,1) Lorentz symmetry is…
These four lectures, addressed to an audience of graduate students in experimental high energy physics, survey some of the basic concepts in string theory. The purpose is to convey a general sense of what string theory is and what it has…
Various nonsupersymmetric theories at large but finite $N$ are argued to permit light scalars and large hierarchies without fine-tuning. In a dual string description, the hierarchy results from competition between classical and quantum…
This is a set of lectures on the gauge/string duality and non-critical strings, with a particular emphasis on the discretized, or matrix model, approach. After a general discussion of various points of view, I describe the recent…
We derive harmonic superspaces for N=2,3,4 SYM theory in four dimensions from superstring theory. The pure spinors in ten dimensions are dimensionally reduced and yield the harmonic coordinates. Two anticommuting BRST charges implement…
A consistent theory of supersymmetry breaking must have a hidden sector, an observable sector, and must be embedded in a locally supersymmetric theory which arises from string theory. For phenomenological reasons it must also transmit…
We improve the study of the lack of perturbative unitarity of noncommutative space-time quantum field theories derived from open string theory in electric backgrounds, enforcing the universality of the mechanism by which a tachyonic branch…
Special solutions of string theory in supercritical dimensions can interpolate in time between theories with different numbers of spacetime dimensions (via dimension quenching) and different amounts of worldsheet supersymmetry (via…
We propose correspondences between 4d quantum field theories with N=2,1,0 (super)conformal invariance and Type IIB string theory on various orbifolds. We argue using the spacetime string theory, and check using the beta functions (exactly…
Motivated by supersymmetry breaking in matrix model formulations of superstrings, we present some concrete models, in which the supersymmetry is preserved for any finite $N$, but gets broken at infinite $N$, where $N$ is the rank of matrix…