Related papers: `Desert' in Energy or Transverse Space?
We propose a new cosmological scenario which resolves the conventional initial singularity problem. The space-time geometry has an unconventional time-like singularity on a lower dimensional hypersurface, with localized energy density. The…
This presentation is intended to give a flavour of the physics to be studied and discovered by exploiting the interface between string theory, M-theory and field theory provided by the dynamics of extended objects called `branes', and their…
The observable universe could be a 1+3-surface (the "brane") embedded in a 1+3+d-dimensional spacetime (the "bulk"), with standard-model particles and fields trapped on the brane while gravity is free to access the bulk. At least one of the…
A common framework of particle physics consists of two sectors of particles, such as the Standard Model and a dark sector, with some interaction between them. In this work, we initiate the study of a qualitatively different setup in which…
Space-filling S-branes can mediate a transition between a contracting and an expanding universe in the Einstein frame. Following up on previous work that uncovered such bouncing solutions in the context of weakly coupled thermal…
We consider an eleven dimensional supergravity compactified on $K3\times T^2$ and show that the resulting five dimensional theory has identical massless states as that of heterotic string compactified on a specific five torus $T^5$. The…
We examine, in the context of certain string compactifications resulting in five dimensional brane worlds the mechanisms of (self) tuning of the cosmological constant and the recovery of standard cosmological evolution. We show that self…
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 complete the proof of unitarity of (compactified) heterotic and type II string field theories by showing that in the cut diagrams only physical states appear in the sum over intermediate states. This analysis takes into account the…
A long-standing problem of theoretical physics is the exceptionally small value of the cosmological constant $\Lambda \sim 10^{-120}$ measured in natural Planckian units. Here we derive this tiny number from a toroidal string cosmology…
In this thesis we study the spectra of supersymmetric states in string theory compactifications with eight and sixteen supercharges, with special focus placed on the quantum states of black holes and the phenomenon of wall-crossing in these…
Superunification underwent a major paradigm shift in 1984 when eleven-dimensional supergravity was knocked off its pedestal by ten-dimensional superstrings. This last year has witnessed a new shift of equal proportions: perturbative…
String and field theory ideas have greatly influenced each other since the so called second string revolution. We review this interrelation paying particular attention to its phenomenological implications. Our guiding principle is the…
We show that, under general assumptions, in six-dimensional brane-world models with compactified large extra dimensions, the energy density of brane oscillations scales as that of cold dark matter and its present value is compatible with…
A string field theory(SFT) nonlocal model of the cosmological dark energy providing w<-1 is briefly surveyed. We summarize recent developments and open problems, as well as point out some theoretical issues related with others applications…
Dark energy, the main constituent in our expanding universe, responsible for its acceleration, is currently being observed with unprecedented precision through various experiments. While several cosmological models can fit this latest data,…
String theory, if it describes nature, is probably strongly coupled. In light of recent developments in string duality, this means that the ``real world'' should correspond to a region of the classical moduli space which admits no weak…
Motivated by recent work on low energy unification, in this short note we derive corrections on Newton's inverse square law due to the existence of extra decompactified dimensions. In the four-dimensional macroscopic limit we find that the…
The aim of this talk is to provide non-experts with a brief and elementary introduction on the field of extra dimensions. The main motivation for extra dimensions relies on the more fundamental string theories that predict ten (or eleven)…
We consider string theory in a time dependent orbifold with a null singularity. The singularity separates a contracting universe from an expanding universe, thus constituting a big crunch followed by a big bang. We quantize the theory both…