Related papers: A Note on Tensionless Strings in M-Theory
This essay presents a critical evaluation of the concepts of string theory and its impact on particle physics. The point of departure is a historical review of four decades of ST within the broader context of six decades of failed attempts…
String theory is at the moment the only advanced approach to a unification of all interactions, including gravity. But, in spite of the more than thirty years of its existence, it does not make any empirically testable predictions, and it…
Many models of physics beyond the Standard Model predict minicharged particles to which current and near future low-energy experiments are highly sensitive. Such minicharges arise generically from kinetic-mixing in theories containing at…
After a review of some topics concerning the phenomenological applications of perturbative string theory, I discuss to what extent all of it is affected by the recent developements in string dualities.
We discuss vacuum energy in string and M-theory with a focus on heterotic M-theory. In the latter theory a mechanism is described for maintaining zero vacuum energy after supersymmetry breaking. Higher-order corrections can be expected to…
We consider one of the simplest time-dependent backgrounds in M-theory, describing the shrinking away of the M-theory dimension with the other spatial dimensions static. As the M-theory dimension becomes small, the situation becomes…
The origin of the string conformal anomaly is studied in detail. We use a reformulated string Lagrangian which allows to consider the string tension $T_{0}$ as a small perturbation. The expansion parameter is the worldsheet speed of light…
String amplitudes with an arbitrary number of world-sheet boundaries on which the coordinates satisfy Dirichlet boundary conditions are analyzed in a path integral framework. Special attention is payed to the novel divergences associated…
Recent work has made clear that we have far more control over the dynamics of supersymmetric than non-supersymmetric theories. Here, I discuss some issues in dynamical supersymmetry breaking both in ordinary field theory and in string…
We review the idea of our earlier proposed string field theory \cite{early1,early2,ourappear}, which makes the second quantized string theory appear as described by one or two types of stationary - so called - "objects" for string theories…
The recent discovery of non-perturbatively stable two-dimensional string backgrounds and their dual matrix models allows the study of complete scattering matrices in string theory. In this note we adapt work of Moore, Plesser, and Ramgoolam…
In string theory, the consequences of replacing the measure of integration $\sqrt{-\gamma}d^2 x$ in the Polyakov's action by $\Phi d^2 x$ where $\Phi$ is a density built out of degrees of freedom independent of the metric $\gamma_{ab}$…
Recent progress on string theory in curved spacetimes is reviewed. The string dynamics in cosmological and black hole spacetimes is investigated.The methods to solve the string equations of motion in curved spacetimes are described.That is,…
M-theory can be defined on closed manifolds as well as on manifolds with boundary. As an extension, we show that manifolds with corners appear naturally in M-theory. We illustrate this with four situations: The lift to bounding twelve…
In string theory, higher rank antisymmetric tensor fields appear as massless excitations of closed strings. Till date there is no experimental support in favour of their existence. In a stringy framework, starting from a warped throat-like…
We consider string meson and string baryon models in the framework of the modified measure theory, the theory that does not use the determinant of the metric to construct the invariant volume element. As the outcome of this theory, the…
The string tensions can be dynamical in the modified measure formalism and appear as an additional dynamical degrees of freedom . These tensions may not be universal, instead, each string generates its own tension. We then consider a new…
Progress on string theory in curved spacetimes since 1992 are reviewed. After a short introduction on strings in Minkowski and curved spacetimes, we focus on strings in cosmological spacetimes. The classical behaviour of strings in FRW and…
We show a possibility that the matrix models recently proposed to explain (almost) all the physics of M-theory may include the superstring theories that we know perturbatively. The ``1st quantized'' physical system of one IIA string seems…
String theory has been the dominating research field in theoretical physics during the last decades. Despite the considerable time elapse, no new testable predictions have been derived by string theorists and it is understandable that…