Real fermionic symmetry in type II supergravity

It is known that the transformations of fermionic T-duality, derived from the worldsheet theory, generically transform real supergravity backgrounds to complex supergravity backgrounds. We consider the low-energy target space theory and show that the type II supergravity equations admit a symmetry that transforms the Ramond-Ramond fields and the dilaton. The transformations given by this symmetry involve Killing spinors and include the transformations of Berkovits and Maldacena. However, we show that they also allow real transformations.Comment: 30 pages; added comments and references. Corrected typo

String-Dominated Cosmology

If string theory controls physics at the string scale, the dynamics of the early universe before the GUT era will be governed by the low-energy string equations of motion. Studying these equations for FRW spacetimes, we find that depending on the initial conditions when the stringy era starts, and on the time when it ends, there are a wide variety of qualitatively distinct types of evolution. We classify these, and present the general solution to the equations of motion

Localization on the Landscape and Eternal Inflation

We investigate the validity of the assertion that eternal inflation populates the landscape of string theory. We verify that bubble solutions do not satisfy the Klein Gordon equation for the landscape potential. Solutions to the landscape potential within the formalism of quantum cosmology are Anderson localized wavefunctions. Those are inconsistent with inflating bubble solutions. The physical reasons behind the failure of a relation between eternal inflation and the landscape are rooted in quantum phenomena such as interference between wavefunction concentrated around the various vacua in the landscape.Comment: 21 page

Landau degeneracy and black hole entropy

We consider the supergravity solution describing a configuration of intersecting D-4-branes with non-vanishing worldvolume gauge fields. The entropy of such a black hole is calculated in terms of the D-branes quantised charges. The non-extreme solution is also considered and the corresponding thermodynamical quantities are calculated in terms of a D-brane/anti-D-brane system. To perform the quantum mechanical D-brane analysis we study open-strings with their ends on branes with a magnetic condensate. Applying the results to our D-brane system we managed to have a perfect agreement between the D-brane entropy counting and the corresponding semi-classical result. The Landau degeneracy of the open string states describing the excitations of the D-brane system enters in a crucial way. We also derive the near-extreme results which agree with the semi-classical calculations.Comment: 30 pages, 1 figure, latex. Minor corrections, version to appear in Nuclear Physics

The Physics of 2-d Stringy Spacetimes

We examine the two-dimensional spacetimes that emerge from string theory. We find all the solutions with no tachyons, and show that the only non-trivial solution is the black hole spacetime. We examine the role of duality in this picture. We then explore the thermodynamics of these solutions which is complicated by the fact that only in two spacetime dimensions is it impossible to redefine the dilaton field in terms of a canonical scalar field. Finally, we extend our analysis to the heterotic string, and briefly comment on exact, as opposed to perturbative, solutions

No Future in Black Holes

The black hole information paradox has been with us for some time. We outline the nature of the paradox. We then propose a resolution based on an examination of the properties of quantum gravity under circumstances that give rise to a classical singularity. We show that the gravitational wavefunction vanishes as one gets close to the classical singularity. This results in a future boundary condition inside the black hole that allows for quantum information to be recovered in the evaporation process.Comment: 5 page