Supersymmetric Large Extra Dimensions and the Cosmological Constant Problem

This article briefly summarizes and reviews the motivations for - and the present status of - the proposal that the small size of the observed Dark Energy density can be understood in terms of the dynamical relaxation of two large extra dimensions within a supersymmetric higher-dimensional theory.Comment: Talk presented to Theory Canada I, Vancouver, June 2005. References added in V

Axionic D3-D7 Inflation

We study the motion of a D3 brane moving within a Type IIB string vacuum compactified to 4D on K3 x T_2/Z_2 in the presence of D7 and O7 planes. We work within the effective 4D supergravity describing how the mobile D3 interacts with the lightest bulk moduli of the compactification, including the effects of modulus-stabilizing fluxes. We seek inflationary solutions to the resulting equations, performing our search numerically in order to avoid resorting to approximate parameterizations of the low-energy potential. We consider uplifting from D-terms and from the supersymmetry-breaking effects of anti-D3 branes. We find examples of slow-roll inflation (with anti-brane uplifting) with the mobile D3 moving along the toroidal directions, falling towards a D7-O7 stack starting from the antipodal point. The inflaton turns out to be a linear combination of the brane position and the axionic partner of the K3 volume modulus, and the similarity of the potential along the inflaton direction with that of racetrack inflation leads to the prediction n_s \le 0.95 for the spectral index. The slow roll is insensitive to most of the features of the effective superpotential, and requires a one-in-10^4 tuning to ensure that the torus is close to square in shape. We also consider D-term inflation with the D3 close to the attractive D7, but find that for a broad (but not exhaustive) class of parameters the conditions for slow roll tend to destabilize the bulk moduli. In contrast to the axionic case, the best inflationary example of this kind requires the delicate adjustment of potential parameters (much more than the part-per-mille level), and gives inflation only at an inflection point of the potential (and so suffers from additional fine-tuning of initial conditions to avoid an overshoot problem).Comment: 29 pages, 5 figure

Warped Spectroscopy: Localization of Frozen Bulk Modes

We study the 10D equation of motion of dilaton-axion fluctuations in type IIB string compactifications with three-form flux, taking warping into account. Using simplified models with physics comparable to actual compactifications, we argue that the lightest mode localizes in long warped throats and takes a mass of order the warped string scale. Also, Gukov-Vafa-Witten superpotential is valid for the lightest mass mode; however, the mass is similar to the Kaluza-Klein scale, so the dilaton-axion should be integrated out of the effective theory in this long throat regime (leaving a constant superpotential). On the other hand, there is a large hierarchy between flux-induced and KK mass scales for moderate or weak warping. This hierarchy agrees with arguments given for trivial warping. Along the way, we also estimate the effect of the other 10D supergravity equations of motion on the dilaton-axion fluctuation, since these equations act as constraints. We argue that they give negligible corrections to the simplest approximation.Comment: 24pp + appendices, 6 figs, JHEP3 class; v2. corrected reference; v3. added clarifications; v4. corrected typo

Fields Annihilation and Particles Creation in DBI inflation

We consider a model of DBI inflation where two stacks of mobile branes are moving ultra relativistically in a warped throat. The stack closer to the tip of the throat is annihilated with the background anti-branes while inflation proceeds by the second stack. The effects of branes annihilation and particles creation during DBI inflation on the curvature perturbations power spectrum and the scalar spectral index are studied. We show that for super-horizon scales, modes which are outside the sound horizon at the time of branes collision, the spectral index has a shift to blue spectrum compared to the standard DBI inflation. For small scales the power spectrum approaches to its background DBI inflation value with the decaying superimposed oscillatory modulations.Comment: First revision: minor changes, the background spectral index is corrected, new references are added. Second revision: minor changes, new references are added, accepted for publication in JCA

Dynamical Fine Tuning in Brane Inflation

We investigate a novel mechanism of dynamical tuning of a flat potential in the open string landscape within the context of warped brane-antibrane inflation in type IIB string theory. Because of competing effects between interactions with the moduli stabilizing D7-branes in the warped throat and anti-D3-branes at the tip, a stack of branes gives rise to a local minimum of the potential, holding the branes high up in the throat. As branes successively tunnel out of the local minimum to the bottom of the throat the potential barrier becomes lower and is eventually replaced by a flat inflection point, around which the remaining branes easily inflate. This dynamical flattening of the inflaton potential reduces the need to fine tune the potential by hand, and also leads to successful inflation for a larger range of inflaton initial conditions, due to trapping in the local minimum.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures. v2: Updated D3-dependence in potential, small changes to numerical result

DBI Lifshitz Inflation

A new model of DBI inflation is introduced where the mobile brane, the inflaton field, is moving relativistically inside a Lifshitz throat with an arbitrary anisotropic scaling exponent $z$. After dimensional reduction to four dimension the general covariance is broken explicitly both in the matter and the gravitational sectors. The general action for the metric and matter field perturbations are obtained and it is shown to be similar to the classifications made in the effective field theory of inflation literature.Comment: Version 3: minor typos corrected, the JCAP published versio

String Pair Creations in D-brane Systems

We investigate the criterion, on the Born-Infeld background fields, for the open string pair creation to occur in D$p$-(anti-)D$p$-brane systems. Although the pair creation occurs generically in both D$p$-D$p$ and D$p$-anti-D$p$ systems for the cases which meet the criterion, it is more drastic in D$p$-anti-D$p$-brane systems by some exponential factor depending on the background fields. Various configurations exhibiting pair creations are obtained via duality transformations. These include the spacelike scissors and two D-strings (slanted at different angles) passing through each other. We raise the scissors paradox and suggest a resolution based on the triple junction in IIB setup.Comment: V2. 1+28 pages, 5 figures in JHEP3, minor changes, added reference

Fibre Inflation: Observable Gravity Waves from IIB String Compactifications

We introduce a simple string model of inflation, in which the inflaton field can take trans-Planckian values while driving a period of slow-roll inflation. This leads naturally to a realisation of large field inflation, inasmuch as the inflationary epoch is well described by the single-field scalar potential $V = V_0 (3-4 e^{-\hat\varphi/\sqrt{3}})$. Remarkably, for a broad class of vacua all adjustable parameters enter only through the overall coefficient $V_0$, and in particular do not enter into the slow-roll parameters. Consequently these are determined purely by the number of \e-foldings, $N_e$, and so are not independent: $\varepsilon \simeq \frac32 \eta^2$. This implies similar relations among observables like the primordial scalar-to-tensor amplitude, $r$, and the scalar spectral tilt, $n_s$: $r \simeq 6(n_s - 1)^2$. $N_e$ is itself more model-dependent since it depends partly on the post-inflationary reheat history. In a simple reheating scenario a reheating temperature of $T_{rh}\simeq 10^{9}$ GeV gives $N_e\simeq 58$, corresponding to $n_s\simeq 0.970$ and $r\simeq 0.005$, within reach of future observations. The model is an example of a class that arises naturally in the context of type IIB string compactifications with large-volume moduli stabilisation, and takes advantage of the generic existence there of Kahler moduli whose dominant appearance in the scalar potential arises from string loop corrections to the Kahler potential. The inflaton field is a combination of Kahler moduli of a K3-fibered Calabi-Yau manifold. We believe there are likely to be a great number of models in this class -- `high-fibre models' -- in which the inflaton starts off far enough up the fibre to produce observably large primordial gravity waves.Comment: Extended calculations beyond the leading approximations, including numerical integrations of multi-field evolution; Display an example with $r = 0.01$; Simplify the discussion of large fields; Corrected minor errors and typos; Added references; 41 pages LaTeX, 25 figure

Uniqueness and examples of compact toric Sasaki-Einstein metrics

In [11] it was proved that, given a compact toric Sasaki manifold of positive basic first Chern class and trivial first Chern class of the contact bundle, one can find a deformed Sasaki structure on which a Sasaki-Einstein metric exists. In the present paper we first prove the uniqueness of such Einstein metrics on compact toric Sasaki manifolds modulo the action of the identity component of the automorphism group for the transverse holomorphic structure, and secondly remark that the result of [11] implies the existence of compatible Einstein metrics on all compact Sasaki manifolds obtained from the toric diagrams with any height, or equivalently on all compact toric Sasaki manifolds whose cones have flat canonical bundle. We further show that there exists an infinite family of inequivalent toric Sasaki-Einstein metrics on $S^5 \sharp k(S^2 \times S^3)$ for each positive integer $k$.Comment: Statements of the results are modifie

Skin friction Reduction by Introduction of Micro-bubbles into Turbulent Boundary Layer

The phenomenon of drag reduction by the injection of microbubbles into turbulent boundary layer has been investigated using an Eulerian-Eulerian two-fluid model. Two variants namely the Inhomogeneous and MUSIG (MUltiple SIze Group) based on Population balance models are investigated. The simulated results are compared against the experimental findings of Madavan et al [1]. The model employed in the investigation comprises of a twodimensional micro-bubble laden flow wherein the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) transport equations were used to describe both the phases of the flow. A SST (Shear Stress Transport) turbulence model is used as the turbulent closure for the primary phase and a zero equation turbulence model is used for the micro-bubbles