Related papers: D-Particles, D-Instantons, and A Space-Time Uncert…
By exploiting recent arguments about stable nonsupersymmetric D-brane states, we argue that D-brane charge takes values in the K-theory of spacetime, as has been suspected before. In the process, we gain a new understanding of some novel…
In order to get the general framework describing a nonlocalizable object beyond the bilocal field theory early proposed by Markov and Yukawa, the quantization of space-time is reconsidered and further developed. Space-time quantities are…
String theory in two-dimensional spacetime illuminates two main threads of recent development in string theory: (1) Open/closed string duality, and (2) Tachyon condensation. In two dimensions, many aspects of these phenomena can be explored…
It has been proposed by Sen that the D-instanton effects in string theory can be systematically determined through the framework of open-closed string field theory. We apply the latter formalism to analyze the D-instanton corrections to the…
It is known that YM_2 with gauge group SU(N) is equivalent to a string theory with coupling g_s=1/N, order by order in the 1/N expansion. We show how this results can be obtained from the bosonization of the fermionic formulation of YM_2,…
Exact instanton solutions to $D=11$ spherical supermembranes moving in flat target spacetime backgrounds are construted. Our starting point is Super Yang-Mills theories, based on the infinite dimensional $SU(\infty)$ group, dimensionally…
We review for non-experts possible phenomenological scenari in String Theory. In particular we focus on vacuum configurations with intersecting and/or magnetized unoriented D-branes. We will show how a TeV scale tension may be compatible…
A class of time dependent pp-waves with NS-NS flux in type IIA string theory is considered. The background preserves 1/4 supersymmetry and may provide a toy model of Big Bang cosmology with non trivial flux. At the Big Bang singularity in…
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…
Motivated by the possibility of an effective string description for the infrared limit of pure Yang-Mills theory, we present a toy model for an effective theory of random surfaces propagating in a target space of $D>2$. We show that the…
To understand an emergent spacetime is to understand the emergence of locality. Entanglement entropy is a powerful diagnostic of locality, because locality leads to a large amount of short distance entanglement. Two dimensional string…
We argue that the light particles in string theory obey an effective quantum mechanics modified by the inclusion of a quantum-gravitational friction term, induced by unavoidable couplings to unobserved massive string states in the…
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…
Quantization of two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory on a torus in the gauge where the field strength is diagonal leads to twisted sectors that are completely analogous to the ones that originate long string states in Matrix String Theory. If…
The recently proposed remarkable mechanism explaining ``stringy exclusion principle" on an Anti de Sitter space is shown to be another beautiful manifestation of spacetime uncertainty principle in string theory as well as in M theory. Put…
We consider a D-brane probe in unstable string background associated with flux branes. The twist in spacetime metric reponsible for the supersymmetry breaking is shown to manifest itself in mixing of open Wilson lines with the phases of…
String theory has transformed our understanding of geometry, topology and spacetime. Thus, for this special issue of Foundations of Physics commemorating "Forty Years of String Theory", it seems appropriate to step back and ask what we do…
We present an overview of the intimate relationship between string and D-brane dynamics, and the dynamics of gauge and gravitational fields in three spacetime dimensions. The successes, prospects and open problems in describing both…
In a universe whose elementary constituents are point particles there does not seem to be any obvious mechanism for avoiding the initial singularities in physical quantities in the standard model of cosmology. In contrast in string theory…
We illustrate a physical situation in which topological symmetry, its breakdown, space-time uncertainty principle, and background independence may play an important role in constructing and understanding matrix models. First, we show that…