827 research outputs found
Project characteristics for design and build procurement in Malaysian construction industry
Design & Build procurement approach is one of the procurement methods which is known to be widely gaining popularity in order to serve the modern day construction clients desire of having a constructed facility. To effectively service the market-driven expansion of this project delivery strategy in the construction community, a fundamental understanding of the characteristics of the Design & Build procurement approach is necessary. This study is aimed at appraising the Design & Build procurement approach in the Malaysian construction industry based on current practice through identifying the characteristics of the procurement approach. For this purpose, a detailed literature review of the Design & Build characteristics was conducted and data was collected from a two round Delphi questionnaire survey conducted with experienced professionals that have vast experience in the Design & Build procurement practice. The relative importance of these characteristics were quantified by the relative importance index method demonstrating their level of priority. The key findings in the study showed that the practice of the procurement approach in Malaysia is most importantly characterized by the fact that it is most suitable for projects that are complex in nature, while âeffective client representationâ is the least important characteristic of the Design & Build procurement approach with regard to the Malaysian construction industry. It is expected that with the consideration of these characteristics of the D&B procurement approach, it will consequently result in the overall improvement in the performance of the Malaysian construction industry in relation to project delivery
Cosmology and two-body problem of D-branes
In this paper, we investigate the dynamics and the evolution of the scale
factor of a probe Dp-brane which move in the background of source Dp-branes.
Action of the probe brane is described by the Born-Infeld action and the
interaction with the background R-R field. When the probe brane moves away from
the source branes, it expands by power law, whose index depends on the
dimension of the brane. If the energy density of the gauge field on the brane
is subdominant, the expansion is decelerating irrespective of the dimension of
the brane. On the other hand, when the probe brane is a Nambu-Goto brane, the
energy density of the gauge field can be dominant, in which case accelerating
expansion occurs for . The accelerating expansion stops when the
brane has expanded sufficiently so that the energy density of the gauge field
become subdominant.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, reference added, accepted for publication in PR
Moduli stabilization with positive vacuum energy
We study the effect of anomalous U(1) gauge groups in string theory
compactification with fluxes. We find that, in a gauge invariant formulation,
consistent AdS vacua appear breaking spontaneously supergravity. Non vanishing
D-terms from the anomalous symmetry act as an uplifting potential and could
allow for de Sitter vacua. However, we show that in this case the gravitino is
generically (but not always) much heavier than the electroweak scale. We show
that alternative uplifting scheme based on corrections to the Kahler potential
can be compatible with a gravitino mass in the TeV range.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur
Inflation in Realistic D-Brane Models
We find successful models of D-brane/anti-brane inflation within a string
context. We work within the GKP-KKLT class of type IIB string vacua for which
many moduli are stabilized through fluxes, as recently modified to include
`realistic' orbifold sectors containing standard-model type particles. We allow
all moduli to roll when searching for inflationary solutions and find that
inflation is not generic inasmuch as special choices must be made for the
parameters describing the vacuum. But given these choices inflation can occur
for a reasonably wide range of initial conditions for the brane and antibrane.
We find that D-terms associated with the orbifold blowing-up modes play an
important role in the inflationary dynamics. Since the models contain a
standard-model-like sector after inflation, they open up the possibility of
addressing reheating issues. We calculate predictions for the CMB temperature
fluctuations and find that these can be consistent with observations, but are
generically not deep within the scale-invariant regime and so can allow
appreciable values for as well as predicting a potentially
observable gravity-wave signal. It is also possible to generate some admixture
of isocurvature fluctuations.Comment: 39 pages, 21 figures; added references; identified parameters
combining successful inflation with strong warping, as needed for consistency
of the approximation
Warping and F-term uplifting
We analyse the effective supergravity model of a warped compactification with
matter on D3 and D7-branes. We find that the main effect of the warp factor is
to modify the F-terms while leaving the D-terms invariant. Hence warped models
with moduli stabilisation and a small positive cosmological constant resulting
from a large warping can only be achieved with an almost vanishing D-term and a
F-term uplifting. By studying string-motivated examples with gaugino
condensation on magnetised D7-branes, we find that even with a vanishing
D-term, it is difficult to achieve a Minkowski minimum for reasonable parameter
choices. When coupled to an ISS sector the AdS vacua is uplifted, resulting in
a small gravitino mass for a warp factor of order 10^-5.Comment: 24 pages, v3: typos, minor clarifications adde
Racetrack Inflation
We develop a model of eternal topological inflation using a racetrack
potential within the context of type IIB string theory with KKLT volume
stabilization. The inflaton field is the imaginary part of the K\"ahler
structure modulus, which is an axion-like field in the 4D effective field
theory. This model does not require moving branes, and in this sense it is
simpler than other models of string theory inflation. Contrary to
single-exponential models, the structure of the potential in this example
allows for the existence of saddle points between two degenerate local minima
for which the slow-roll conditions can be satisfied in a particular range of
parameter space. We conjecture that this type of inflation should be present in
more general realizations of the modular landscape. We also consider
`irrational' models having a dense set of minima, and discuss their possible
relevance for the cosmological constant problem.Comment: 23 pages 7 figures. The final version with minor modifications, to
appear in JHE
D-Brane Chemistry
We study several different kinds of bound states built from D-branes and
orientifolds. These states are to atoms what branonium - the bound state of a
brane and its anti-brane - is to positronium, inasmuch as they typically
involve a light brane bound to a much heavier object with conserved charges
which forbid the system's decay. We find the fully relativistic motion of a
probe Dp'-brane in the presence of source Dp-branes is integrable by
quadratures. Keplerian conic sections are obtained for special choices for p
and p' and the systems are shown to be equivalent to nonrelativistic systems.
Their quantum behaviour is also equivalent to the corresponding
non-relativistic limit. In particular the p=6, p'=0 case is equivalent to a
non-relativistic dyon in a magnetic monopole background, with the trajectories
in the surface of a cone. We also show that the motion of the probe branes
about D6-branes in IIA theory is equivalent to the motion of the corresponding
probes in the uplift to M-theory in 11 dimensions, for which there are no
D6-branes but their fields are replaced by a particular Taub-NUT geometry. We
further discuss the interactions of D-branes and orientifold planes having the
same dimension. this system behaves at large distances as a brane-brane system
but at shorter distances it does not have the tachyon instability.Comment: ref. added and typos correcte
Branonium
We study the bound states of brane/antibrane systems by examining the motion
of a probe antibrane moving in the background fields of N source branes. The
classical system resembles the point-particle central force problem, and the
orbits can be solved by quadrature. Generically the antibrane has orbits which
are not closed on themselves. An important special case occurs for some
Dp-branes moving in three transverse dimensions, in which case the orbits may
be obtained in closed form, giving the standard conic sections but with a
nonstandard time evolution along the orbit. Somewhat surprisingly, in this case
the resulting elliptical orbits are exact solutions, and do not simply apply in
the limit of asymptotically-large separation or non-relativistic velocities.
The orbits eventually decay through the radiation of massless modes into the
bulk and onto the branes, and we estimate this decay time. Applications of
these orbits to cosmology are discussed in a companion paper.Comment: 34 pages, LaTeX, 4 figures, uses JHEP
Warped Tachyonic Inflation in Type IIB Flux Compactifications and the Open-String Completeness Conjecture
We consider a cosmological scenario within the KKLT framework for moduli
stabilization in string theory. The universal open string tachyon of decaying
non-BPS D-brane configurations is proposed to drive eternal topological
inflation. Flux-induced `warping' can provide the small slow-roll parameters
needed for successful inflation. Constraints on the parameter space leading to
sufficient number of e-folds, exit from inflation, density perturbations and
stabilization of the Kahler modulus are investigated. The conditions are
difficult to satisfy in Klebanov-Strassler throats but can be satisfied in T^3
fibrations and other generic Calabi-Yau manifolds. This requires large volume
and magnetic fluxes on the D-brane. The end of inflation may or may not lead to
cosmic strings depending on the original non-BPS configuration. A careful
investigation of initial conditions leading to a phenomenologically viable
model for inflation is carried out. The initial conditions are chosen on the
basis of Sen's open string completeness conjecture. We find time symmetrical
bounce solutions without initial singularities for k=1 FRW models which are
correlated with an inflationary period. Singular big-bang/big-crunch solutions
also exist but do not lead to inflation. There is an intriguing correlation
between having an inflationary universe in 4 dimensions and 6 compact
dimensions or a big-crunch singularity and decompactification.Comment: 43 pages, 9 figures. v3: Typos correcte
Multiple Inflation, Cosmic String Networks and the String Landscape
Motivated by the string landscape we examine scenarios for which inflation is
a two-step process, with a comparatively short inflationary epoch near the
string scale and a longer period at a much lower energy (like the TeV scale).
We quantify the number of -foldings of inflation which are required to yield
successful inflation within this picture. The constraints are very sensitive to
the equation of state during the epoch between the two inflationary periods, as
the extra-horizon modes can come back inside the horizon and become
reprocessed. We find that the number of -foldings during the first
inflationary epoch can be as small as 12, but only if the inter-inflationary
period is dominated by a network of cosmic strings (such as might be produced
if the initial inflationary period is due to the brane-antibrane mechanism). In
this case a further 20 -foldings of inflation would be required at lower
energies to solve the late universe's flatness and horizon problems.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figures; v2: refences adde
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