Related papers: The Second Superstring Revolution
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…
Duality, the equivalence between seemingly distinct quantum systems, is a curious property that has been known for at least three quarters of a century. In the past two decades it has played a central role in mapping out the structure of…
It was recently shown that velocity-dependent forces between parallel fundamental strings moving apart in a $D-$dimensional spacetime implied an accelerating expanding universe in $D-1$-dimensional space-time. Exact solutions were obtained…
We systematically analyze supersymmetric D-branes in the type IIB plane wave background using Green-Schwarz superstring theory. We find several new supersymmetric oblique and curved D-branes. The supersymmetries preserved by various…
We calculate the tensions of all half-supersymmetric nine-branes in IIB string theory. In particular, we point out the existence of a solitonic IIB nine-brane. We find that the D9-brane and its duality transformations parametrize a…
In this thesis we elaborate on the three subjects of the title. We first show that supertubes exist and still preserve some supersymmetry in a large variety of curved backgrounds. Within the AdS/CFT correspondence we study the supersymmetry…
We study the superstrings suspended between a D2- and an anti-D2-brane. We quantize the string in the presence of some general configuration of gauge fields over the (anti-)D-brane world volumes. The interstring can move only in a specific…
In these lectures, I review the current status of cosmic strings and cosmic superstrings. I first discuss topological defects in the context of Grand Unified Theories, focusing in particular in cosmic strings arising as gauge theory…
The 2-brane and 4-brane solutions of ten dimensional IIA supergravity have a dual interpretation as Dirichlet-branes, or `D-branes', of type IIA superstring theory and as `M-branes' of an $S^1$-compactified eleven dimensional supermembrane…
We review some recent developments in the theory of $W_\infty$. We comment on its relevance to lower-dimensional string theory.
I review some of the recent progress in two-dimensional string theory, which is formulated as a sum over surfaces embedded in one dimension.
I will briefly review the formation and evolution of cosmic superstrings, in the context of brane-world cosmological models within M-theory. These objects can play the role of cosmic strings, offering a variety of astrophysical…
String theories with branes can often be generalized by adding brane-antibrane pairs. We explore the cancellation of anomalies in this more general context, extending the familiar anomaly-cancelling mechanisms, both for ten-dimensional…
A couple of issues concerning the effective dynamics of D-branes in string theory are discussed. Primarily, I am concerned with linearization of the actions by introduction of non-propagating fields and a full super- and kappa-symmetric…
In this paper we study the reduction of four-dimensional Seiberg duality to three dimensions from a brane perspective. We reproduce the non-perturbative dynamics of the three-dimensional field theory via a T-duality at finite radius and the…
In the past three years our views on how the standard model of particle physics could be embedded into string theory have dramatically changed. The heterotic string is no longer the only possibility for such an embedding and other…
Recent developments in supersymmetric unified theories are reviewed, with particular emphasis on supersymmetric grand unification and a brief discussion of recent ideas about extra dimensions.
The duality-type symmetries of string cosmology naturally lead to a pre-big-bang phase of accelerated evolution as dual counterpart of the decelerated expansion of standard cosmology. We discuss several properties of this scenario,…
It is shown that many of the $p$-branes of type II string theory and $d=11$ supergravity can have boundaries on other $p$-branes. The rules for when this can and cannot occur are derived from charge conservation. For example it is found…
We discuss the generalization of recently discovered BPS configurations, corresponding to the planar string networks, to non-planar ones by considering the U-duality symmetry of type II string theory in various dimensions. As an explicit…