Related papers: Supersymmetry breaking and weakly vs. strongly cou…
Type I string theory in the presence of internal magnetic fields provides a concrete realization of split supersymmetry. To lowest order, gauginos are massless while squarks and sleptons are superheavy. For weak magnetic fields, the correct…
We discuss the possibility of finding scenarios, within type IIB string theory compactified on Calabi-Yau orientifolds with fluxes, for realizing gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking. We find that while in principle such scenarios are not…
We describe a class of supersymmetric unified models with the following properties: i) the full breaking of the gauge group is achieved by Higgs fields in the fundamental representation; ii) the correct unification of the strong and…
We discuss supersymmetry breaking mechanisms at the level of low energy N=1 effective heterotic superstring actions that exhibit $SL(2,Z)_T$ target space modular duality or $SL(2,Z)_S$ strong-weak coupling duality. The allowed…
We consider a generic scenario of spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry in the hidden sector within N=1 supersymmetric orientifold compactifications of type II string theories with D-branes that support semi-realistic chiral gauge theories.…
We show that the usual dilaton dominance scenario, derived from the tree level K\"ahler potential, can never correspond to a global minimum of the potential at $V=0$. Similarly, it cannot correspond to a local minimum either, unless a…
The problems of attempting inflationary model-building in a theory containing a dilaton are explained. In particular, I study the shape of the dilaton potential today and during inflation, based on a weakly-coupled heterotic string model…
A model of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking is constructed in which the low-energy physics depends on a single dynamical scale. Strong coupling dynamics of gauge theories plays an important role, in particular through its effects on…
It is generally believed that weak scale supersymmetry implies weak scale supergravity, in the sense that the masses of the gravitino and gravitationally coupled moduli have masses below 100 TeV. This paper presents a realistic framework…
There are at least two serious moduli problems in string cosmology. The first is the possibility that moduli dominate the energy density at the time of nucleosynthesis. The second is that they may not find their minima all together. After…
We present a novel mechanism of supersymmetry breaking embeddable in string theory and simultaneously sharing the main advantages of (sequestered) gravity and gauge mediation. It is driven by a Scherk-Schwarz deformation along a compact…
I discuss several issues concerning the use of string models as unified theories of all interactions. After a short review of gauge coupling unification in the string context, I discuss possible motivations for the construction of $SU(5)$…
We investigate the stability of the hidden sector gaugino condensate in a SL(2,Z)-invariant supergravity model inspired by the E8*E8 heterotic string, using the chiral superfield formalism. We calculate the Planck-suppressed corrections to…
We perform a systematic analysis of soft supersymmetry breaking terms at the one loop level in a large class of string effective field theories. This includes the so-called anomaly mediated contributions. We illustrate our results for…
We analyze the constraints that a correct phenomenology and the absence of dangerous charge and color breaking (CCB) minima or unbounded from below (UFB) directions impose on the parameter space of different superstring and M-theory…
The general form of soft supersymmetry breaking terms at one loop for effective supergravity models based on the weakly-coupled heterotic string are presented, with special emphasis on those terms arising from the superconformal anomaly.…
We review the origin of soft supersymmetry-breaking terms in N=1 supergravity models of particle physics. We first consider general formulae for those terms in general models with a hidden sector breaking supersymmetry at an intermediate…
We perform a systematic analysis of the soft supersymmetry-breaking terms arising from four-dimensional strings. The analysis does not assume any specific supersymmetry-breaking mechanism but provides a means of parametrizing our ignorance…
The Standard Model is the low-energy limit of a microscopic theory which includes extra dimensions and new symmetries. A part of my thesis consisted in constructing a new class of models with two extra dimensions. We showed that these…
String theory abounds with light scalar fields (the dilaton and various moduli) which create a host of observational problems, and notably some serious cosmological difficulties similar to the ones associated with the Polonyi field in the…