185 research outputs found
Target space duality and moduli stabilization in String Gas Cosmology
Motivated by string gas cosmology, we investigate the stability of moduli
fields coming from compactifications of string gas on torus with background
flux. It was previously claimed that moduli are stabilized only at a single
fixed point in moduli space, a self-dual point of T-duality with vanishing
flux. Here, we show that there exist other stable fixed points on moduli space
with non-vanishing flux. We also discuss the more general target space
dualities associated with these fixed points.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figur
Moduli Stabilization with the String Higgs Effect
We review the notion of the Higgs effect in the context of string theory. We
find that by including this effect in time dependent backgrounds, one is led to
a natural mechanism for stabilizing moduli at points of enhanced gauge
symmetry. We consider this mechanism for the case of the radion (size of the
extra dimensions) and find that as decompactification of the large spatial
dimensions takes place the radion will remain stabilized at the self dual
radius. We discuss how this mechanism can be incorporated into models of string
cosmology and brane inflation to resolve some outstanding problems. We also
address some issues regarding which string states should be included when
constructing low energy actions in string cosmology.Comment: 20 pages, references added, typos correcte
Perturbations in a Bouncing Brane Model
The question of how perturbations evolve through a bounce in the Cyclic and
Ekpyrotic models of the Universe is still a matter of ongoing debate. In this
report we show that the collision between boundary branes is in most cases
singular even in the full 5-D formalism, and that first order perturbation
theory breaks down for at least one perturbation variable. Only in the case
that the boundary branes approach each other with constant velocity shortly
before the bounce, can a consistent, non singular solution be found. It is then
possible to follow the perturbations explicitly until the actual collision. In
this case, we find that if a scale invariant spectrum developed on the hidden
brane, it will get transferred to the visible brane during the bounce.Comment: 15 pages, minor modifications, a few typos correcte
Late time evolution of brane gas cosmology and compact internal dimensions
We study the late-time behavior of a universe in the framework of brane gas
cosmology. We investigate the evolution of a universe with a gas of
supergravity particles and a gas of branes. Considering the case when different
dimensions are anisotropically wrapped by various branes, we have derived
Friedman-like equations governing the dynamics of wrapped and unwrapped
subvolumes. We point out that the compact internal dimensions are wrapped by
three or higher dimensional branes.Comment: 16 pages, typos, references, comment on the possibility of
stabilizing the internal dimensions with fluxe
A Terminal Velocity on the Landscape: Particle Production near Extra Species Loci in Higher Dimensions
We investigate particle production near extra species loci (ESL) in a higher
dimensional field space and derive a speed limit in moduli space at weak
coupling. This terminal velocity is set by the characteristic ESL-separation
and the coupling of the extra degrees of freedom to the moduli, but it is
independent of the moduli's potential if the dimensionality of the field space
is considerably larger than the dimensionality of the loci, D >> d. Once the
terminal velocity is approached, particles are produced at a plethora of nearby
ESLs, preventing a further increase in speed via their backreaction. It is
possible to drive inflation at the terminal velocity, providing a
generalization of trapped inflation with attractive features: we find that more
than sixty e-folds of inflation for sub-Planckian excursions in field space are
possible if ESLs are ubiquitous, without fine tuning of initial conditions and
less tuned potentials. We construct a simple, observationally viable model with
a slightly red scalar power-spectrum and suppressed gravitational waves; we
comment on the presence of additional observational signatures originating from
IR-cascading and individual massive particles. We also show that
moduli-trapping at an ESL is suppressed for D >> d, hindering dynamical
selection of high-symmetry vacua on the landscape based on this mechanism.Comment: 46 pages, 6 figures. V3: typos corrected compared to JHEP version,
conclusions unchange
Moduli Stabilization with Long Winding Strings
Stabilizing all of the modulus fields coming from compactifications of string
theory on internal manifolds is one of the outstanding challenges for string
cosmology. Here, in a simple example of toroidal compactification, we study the
dynamics of the moduli fields corresponding to the size and shape of the torus
along with the ambient flux and long strings winding both internal directions.
It is known that a string gas containing states with non-vanishing winding and
momentum number in one internal direction can stabilize the radius of this
internal circle to be at self-dual radius. We show that a gas of long strings
winding all internal directions can stabilize all moduli, except the dilaton
which is stabilized by hand, in this simple example.Comment: title changed, improved presentation; reference added. 18 pages, JHEP
styl
Non-Gaussianities in N-flation
We compute non-Gaussianities in N-flation, a string motivated model of
assisted inflation with quadratic, separable potentials and masses given by the
Marcenko-Pastur distribution. After estimating parameters characterizing the
bi- and trispectrum in the horizon crossing approximation, we focus on the
non-linearity parameter , a measure of the bispectrum; we compute its
magnitude for narrow and broad spreads of masses, including the evolution of
modes after horizon crossing. We identify additional contributions due to said
evolution and show that they are suppressed as long as the fields are evolving
slowly. This renders -flation indistinguishable from simple
single-field models in this regime. Larger non-Gaussianities are expected to
arise for fields that start to evolve faster, and we suggest an analytic
technique to estimate their contribution. However, such fast roll during
inflation is not expected in N-flation, leaving (p)re-heating as the main
additional candidate for generating non-Gaussianities.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figures, extended references to match version accepted in
JCA
Reheating the Universe After Multi-Field Inflation
We study in detail (p)reheating after multi-field inflation models with a
particular focus on N-flation. We consider a variety of different couplings
between the inflatons and the matter sector, including both quartic and
trilinear interactions with a light scalar field. We show that the presence of
multiple oscillating inflatons makes parametric resonance inefficient in the
case of the quartic interactions. Moreover, perturbative processes do not
permit a complete decay of the inflaton for this coupling. In order to recover
the hot big bang, we must instead consider trilinear couplings. In this case we
show that strong nonperturbative preheating is possible via multi-field
tachyonic resonance. In addition, late-time perturbative effects do permit a
complete decay of the condensate. We also study the production of gauge fields
for several prototype couplings, finding similar results to the trilinear
scalar coupling. During the course of our analysis we develop the mathematical
theory of the quasi-periodic Mathieu equation, the multi-field generalization
of the Floquet theory familiar from preheating after single field inflation. We
also elaborate on the theory of perturbative decays of a classical inflaton
condensate, which is applicable in single-field models also.Comment: 46+1 pages, 19 figure
Interaction Rates in String Gas Cosmology
We study string interaction rates in the Brandenberger-Vafa scenario, the
very early universe cosmology of a gas of strings. This cosmology starts with
the assumption that all spatial dimensions are compact and initially have
string scale radii; some dimensions grow due to some thermal or quantum
fluctuation which acts as an initial expansion velocity. Based on simple
arguments from the low energy equations of motion and string thermodynamics, we
demonstrate that the interaction rates of strings are negligible, so the common
assumption of thermal equilibrium cannot apply. We also present a new analysis
of the cosmological evolution of strings on compact manifolds of large radius.
Then we discuss modifications that should be considered to the usual
Brandenberger-Vafa scenario. To confirm our simple arguments, we give a
numerical calculation of the annihilation rate of winding strings. In
calculating the rate, we also show that the quantum mechanics of strings in
small spaces is important.Comment: 28pp, 3 figures, RevTeX
Vibrating Winding Branes, Wrapping Democracy and Stabilization of Extra Dimensions in Dilaton Gravity
We show that, in the context of dilaton gravity, a recently proposed
democratic principle for intersection possibilities of branes winding around
extra dimensions yield stabilization, even with the inclusion of momentum modes
of the wrapped branes on top of the winding modes. The constraints for
stabilization massaged by string theory inputs forces the number of observed
dimensions to be three. We also discuss consequences of adding ordinary matter
living in the observed dimensions.Comment: Added a section discussing the linear and non-linear stability of the
equilibrium point of the scale factors of the extra dimensions. Corrected a
typo in the original field equations and other typos. Added and changed
references. Final version appeared in JHE
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