Related papers: A Note on a Class of Cosmological String Backgroun…
We address the problem of describing different closed string backgrounds in background independent open string field theory: A shift in the closed string background corresponds to a collective excitation of open strings. As an illustration…
String cosmology models predict a stochastic cosmic background of gravitational waves with a characteristic spectrum. I describe the background, present astrophysical and cosmological bounds on it, and outline how it may be possible to…
We start a systematic study of string theory in AdS_3 black hole backgrounds. Firstly, we analyse in detail the geodesic structure of the BTZ black hole, including spacelike geodesics. Secondly, we study the spectrum for massive and…
The cosmological constant is an unexplained until now phenomena of nature that requires an explanation through string effects. The apparent discrepancy between theory and experiment is enourmous and has already been explained several times…
We study the cosmological implications of the one-loop terms in the string expansion. In particular, we find non-singular solutions which interpolate between a contracting universe and an expanding universe, and show that these solutions…
In the first part of the present paper, we show that O(d,d)-invariance usually known in a homogeneous cosmological background written in terms of proper time can be extended to backgrounds depending on one or several coordinates (which may…
The strong coupling dynamics of string theories in dimension $d\geq 4$ are studied. It is argued, among other things, that eleven-dimensional supergravity arises as a low energy limit of the ten-dimensional Type IIA superstring, and that a…
We study cosmologies based on low-energy effective string theory with higher-order string corrections to a tree-level action and with a modulus scalar field (dilaton or compactification modulus). In the presence of such corrections it is…
We explore the cosmological dynamics of a minimalistic yet generic string-inspired model for multifield dark energy. Adopting a supergravity four-dimensional viewpoint, we motivate the model's structure arising from superstring…
This article reviews recent developments in the study of universes with a positive cosmological constant in string theory.
The 1--loop string background equations with axion and dilaton fields are shown to be integrable in four dimensions in the presence of two commuting Killing symmetries and $\delta c = 0$. Then, in analogy with reduced gravity, there is an…
An important element in a model of non-singular string cosmology is a phase in which classical corrections saturate the growth of curvature in a deSitter-like phase with a linearly growing dilaton (an `algebraic fixed point'). As the form…
In this paper we investigate compactifications of the type II and heterotic string on four-dimensional spaces with nongeometric monodromies. We explicitly construct backgrounds which contain the "Duality Twists" discussed by Dabholkar and…
We briefly review certain aspects of cosmic microwave background anisotropies as generated in passive and active models of structure formation. We then focus on cosmic strings based models and discuss their status in the light of current…
We present mechanisms for generating conical singularities both in three and four-dimensions in the systems with copies of scalar or chiral multiplets coupled to $N=2$ or $N=1$ supergravity. Our mechanisms are useful for supersymmetry…
A new class of spatially homogeneous 4D string backgrounds, the $X(d\rightarrow)$ according to a recent classification, is presented and shown to contain only five generic types. In contrast to the case of $X(d\uparrow)$ (which contains as…
We present exact solutions of string cosmological models characterized by five dimensional metrics (with four-dimensional real Lie groups as isometry groups), space independent dilaton and vanishing torsion. As an example we consider VII 0…
We investigate cosmologies where the accelerated expansion of the Universe is driven by a field with an anisotropic equation of state. We model such scenarios within the Bianchi I framework, introducing two skewness parameters to quantify…
There is evidence that string theory possesses a large discretuum of stable and/or metastable ground states, with zero or four supersymmetries in four dimensions. I discuss critically the nature of this evidence. Assuming this "landscape"…
We present some phenomenological aspects of the pre-big-bang cosmological model inspired by the duality properties of string theory. In particular, assuming the spatial sections of the homogeneous background geometry to be isotropic, we…