Related papers: Non-Supersymmetric Open String Vacua
We report on the construction of four-dimensional string vacua by considering general abelian and non-abelian bundles on an internal Calabi-Yau for both heterotic theories. The structure of the resulting gauge sector is extremely rich and…
Compactifications of the physical superstring to two dimensions provide a general template for realizing 2D conformal field theories coupled to worldsheet gravity, i.e. non-critical string theories. Motivated by this observation, in this…
Starting from the type IIB string on the Z orbifold, we construct some chiral open-string vacua with N=1 supersymmetry in four dimensions. The Chan-Paton group depends on the (quantized) NS-NS antisymmetric tensor. The largest choice,…
We study the Scherk-Schwarz supersymmetry breaking in five-dimensional orbifold theories with five-dimensional fields which are not strictly localized on the boundaries (quasi-localized fields). We show that the Scherk-Schwarz (SS)…
We discuss a novel strategy to construct 4D N=0 stable flux vacua of type II string theory, based on the existence of BPS bounds for probe D-branes in some of these backgrounds. In particular, we consider compactifications where D-branes…
We study a system of intersecting NS and D-branes in type IIA string theory in R^{9,1}. We show that the 3+1 dimensional non-supersymmetric theory at the intersection has unstable vacua which are long-lived in some regions of the parameter…
The first part of this review tries to provide a self-contained view of supersymmetry breaking from the bottom-up perspective. We thus describe N=1 supersymmetry in four dimensions, the Standard Model and the MSSM, with emphasis on the…
We analyze the Scherk-Schwarz (SS) supersymmetry breaking in brane-world five dimensional theories compactified on the orbifold $S^1/\mathbb{Z}_2$. The SS breaking parameter is undetermined at the tree-level (no-scale supergravity) and can…
We discuss one of the generic spacetime consequences of having (1,0) worldsheet supersymmetry in tachyon-free string theory, namely the appearance of a ``misaligned supersymmetry'' in the corresponding spacetime spectrum. Misaligned…
The study of curved D-brane geometries in type II strings implies a general relation between local singularities $\cx W$ of Calabi-Yau manifolds and gravity free supersymmetric QFT's. The minimal supersymmetric case is described by F-theory…
This thesis contains an introductory chapter on orbifolds. The following chapter explains the foundations of orientifolds. Chapters 4-7 present own research. In chapter 4 we quantize open strings with linear boundary conditions, as they…
In a generic setting of Wess-Zumino models, we prove that the existence of a supersymmetric vacuum with a vanishing superpotential can be a consequence of a continuous or discrete R-symmetry when invariant fields are not less than fields…
In the absence of NSNS three-form flux the bosonic string on a symmetric space is described by a symmetric space coset sigma-model. Such models are known to be classically integrable. We show that the integrability extends also to cases…
By using zero-norm states in the spectrum, we explicitly demonstrate the existence of an infinite number of high energy symmetry structures of the closed bosonic string theory. Each symmetry transformation (except those generated by…
We discuss tachyon-free examples of (Type IIB on) non-compact non-supersymmetric orbifolds. Tachyons are projected out by discrete torsion between orbifold twists, while supersymmetry is broken by a Scherk-Schwarz phase (+1/-1 when acting…
The first part of this thesis is a general introduction to the bosonic and fermionic string theory, to the concept of D brane and to string dualities. A discussion of anomalies cancellation closes the chapter. The second part of the thesis…
"Brane supersymmetry breaking" is a peculiar phenomenon that can occur in perturbative orientifold vacua. It results from the simultaneous presence, in the vacuum, of non-mutually BPS sets of BPS branes and orientifolds, which leave behind…
It appears to be difficult within string theory to obtain genuine scale separation between spacetime and the internal sector. In this paper, we propose a novel mechanism for scale-separated vacua which hinges on stringy effects that are…
We conjecture that all vacua in string theory decay. More precisely, non-supersymmetric vacua in string theory are at most metastable and eventually decay, while supersymmetric vacua are only marginally stable. All de Sitter vacua with…
In this talk, we present three examples of new non-trivial vacuum structures that can occur in supersymmetric field theories, along with explicit models in which they arise. The first vacuum structure is one in which supersymmetry is broken…