Related papers: Chirality Changing Phase Transitions in 4d String …
The phase transition in the mean-field XY model is shown analytically to be related to a topological change in its configuration space. Such a topology change is completely described by means of Morse theory allowing a computation of the…
At high temperatures a four dimensional field theory is reduced to a three dimensional field theory. In this letter we consider the $\phi^4$ theory whose parameters are chosen so that a thermal phase transition occurs at a high temperature.…
We calculate the $\theta$ dependence in a cousin of QCD, where the vacuum structure can be analyzed exactly. The theory is $\mathcal{N}=2$ $SU(2)$ gauge theory with $N_F=0,1,2,3$ flavors of fundamentals, explicitly broken to $\mathcal{N}=1$…
Phase transitions between two competing vacua of a given theory are quite common in physics. We discuss how to construct the space-time solutions that allow the description of phase transitions between different branches (or asymptotics) of…
The theta dependent of pure gauge theories in four dimensions can be studied using a duality of large N gauge theories with string theory on a certain spacetime. Via this duality, one can argue that for every theta, there are infinitely…
We consider D=6, N=1, Z_M orbifold compactifications of heterotic strings in which the usual modular invariance constraints are violated. It is argued that in the presence of non-perturbative effects many of these vacua are nevertheless…
All the models of elementary particles and their interactions derived from String Theory involve a compact six-dimensional internal space. Its volume and shape should be fixed or stabilized, since otherwise massless scalar fields (moduli)…
We consider, in a string theory framework, physical processes of phenomenological interest in models with a low string scale. The amplitudes we study involve tree-level virtual gravitational exchange, divergent in a field-theoretical…
We show that the phase transition previously observed in dynamical triangulation models of quantum gravity can be understood as being due to the creation of a singular link. The transition between singular and non-singular geometries as the…
The past year has seen enormous progress in string theory. It has become clear that all of the different string theories are different limits of a single theory. Moreover, in certain limits, one obtains a new, eleven-dimensional structure…
String theory is the prime candidate for the theory of everything. However, it must be defined in ten dimensions to be consistent. To get 4D physics, the 6 other dimensions should be curled up in a small compact manifold, this procedure is…
We argue that in the context of string theory a large number N of connected degenerate vacua that mix will lead to a ground state with much lower energy, essentially because of the standard level repulsion of quantum theory for the…
After a short introduction to Matrix theory, we explain how can one generalize matrix models to describe toroidal compactifications of M-theory and the heterotic vacua with 16 supercharges. This allows us, for the first time in history, to…
We study the Type 0A string theory in the (2,4k) superconformal minimal model backgrounds, focusing on the fully non-perturbative string equations which define the partition function of the model. The equations admit a parameter, Gamma,…
The phase structure of four-fermion theories is thoroughly investigated with varying temperature and chemical potential for arbitrary space-time dimensions $(2 \leq D < 4)$ by using the 1/N expansion method. It is shown that the chiral…
We study brane realizations of chiral matter in N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories in four dimensions. A "cross" configuration which leads to "flavor doubling" is found to have a superpotential. The main example is realized using a special…
I review dynamical chiral symmetry breaking in four-fermi models, including results of Monte Carlo simulations with dynamical fermions. For 2<d<4, where the phase transition defines an ultraviolet fixed point of the renormalisation group,…
This review article provides a pedagogical introduction into various classes of chiral string compactifications to four dimensions with D-branes and fluxes. The main concern is to provide all necessary technical tools to explicitly…
We describe phase transitions in the heavy quark potential in planar gauge theories having wrapped D5-brane string duals. A new phase transition, previously unnoticed in these models, is driven by the source of a large dimension operator.…
We argue that a generic instability afflicts vacua that arise in theories whose moduli space has large dimension. Specifically, by studying theories with multiple scalar fields we provide numerical evidence that for a generic local minimum…