567 research outputs found
Closed string tachyons, flips and conifolds
Following the analysis of tachyons and orbifold flips described in
hep-th/0412337, we study nonsupersymmetric analogs of the supersymmetric
conifold singularity and show using their toric geometry description that they
are nonsupersymmetric orbifolds of the latter. Using linear sigma models, we
see that these are unstable to localized closed string tachyon condensation and
exhibit flip transitions between their two small resolutions (involving
2-cycles), in the process mediating mild dynamical topology change. Our
analysis shows that the structure of these nonsupersymmetric conifolds as
quotients of the supersymmetric conifold obstructs the 3-cycle deformation of
such singularities, suggesting that these nonsupersymmetric conifolds decay by
evolving towards their stable small resolutions.Comment: Latex, 22 pgs, 2 figs. v4: matches JHEP version, 29 pgs, 3 figures,
more elaborate Introduction, various clarifications adde
Moduli Stabilization from Fluxes in a Simple IIB Orientifold
We study novel type IIB compactifications on the T^6/Z_2 orientifold. This
geometry arises in the T-dual description of Type I theory on T^6, and one
normally introduces 16 space-filling D3-branes to cancel the RR tadpoles. Here,
we cancel the RR tadpoles either partially or fully by turning on three-form
flux in the compact geometry. The resulting (super)potential for moduli is
calculable. We demonstrate that one can find many examples of N=1
supersymmetric vacua with greatly reduced numbers of moduli in this system. A
few examples with N>1 supersymmetry or complete supersymmetry breaking are also
discussed.Comment: 49 pages, harvmac big; v2, corrected some typo
Residues and World-Sheet Instantons
We reconsider the question of which Calabi-Yau compactifications of the
heterotic string are stable under world-sheet instanton corrections to the
effective space-time superpotential. For instance, compactifications described
by (0,2) linear sigma models are believed to be stable, suggesting a remarkable
cancellation among the instanton effects in these theories. Here, we show that
this cancellation follows directly from a residue theorem, whose proof relies
only upon the right-moving world-sheet supersymmetries and suitable compactness
properties of the (0,2) linear sigma model. Our residue theorem also extends to
a new class of "half-linear" sigma models. Using these half-linear models, we
show that heterotic compactifications on the quintic hypersurface in CP^4 for
which the gauge bundle pulls back from a bundle on CP^4 are stable. Finally, we
apply similar ideas to compute the superpotential contributions from families
of membrane instantons in M-theory compactifications on manifolds of G_2
holonomy.Comment: 47 page
Membrane Instantons and de Sitter Vacua
We investigate membrane instanton effects in type IIA strings compactified on
rigid Calabi-Yau manifolds. These effects contribute to the low-energy
effective action of the universal hypermultiplet. In the absence of additional
fivebrane instantons, the quaternionic geometry of this hypermultiplet is
determined by solutions of the three-dimensional Toda equation. We construct
solutions describing membrane instantons, and find perfect agreement with the
string theory prediction. In the context of flux compactifications we discuss
how membrane instantons contribute to the scalar potential and the
stabilization of moduli. Finally, we demonstrate the existence of meta-stable
de Sitter vacua.Comment: v3: minor clarifications, JHEP version, 38 page
Thermal AdS(3), BTZ and competing winding modes condensation
We study the thermal physics of AdS(3) and the BTZ black hole when embedded
in String theory. The exact calculation of the Hagedorn temperature in TAdS(3)
is reinterpreted as the appearance of a winding tachyon both in AdS(3) and BTZ.
We construct a dual framework for analyzing the phases of the system. In this
dual framework, tachyon condensation and geometric capping appear on the same
footing, bridging the usual gap of connecting tachyon condensation to
modifications of geometry. This allows us to construct in a natural way a
candidate for the unstable phase, analogous to a small black hole in higher
dimensions. Additional peculiar effects associated with the Hagedorn
temperature and the Hawking-Page transition, some to do with the asymptotic
structure of AdS(3) and some with strong curvature effects, are analyzed and
explained.Comment: 40 pages, 5 figures, JHEP3 format. v2: added references, minor
corrections and clarification
Theory-Motivated Benchmark Models and Superpartners at the Tevatron
Recently published benchmark models have contained rather heavy
superpartners. To test the robustness of this result, several benchmark models
have been constructed based on theoretically well-motivated approaches,
particularly string-based ones. These include variations on anomaly and
gauge-mediated models, as well as gravity mediation. The resulting spectra
often have light gauginos that are produced in significant quantities at the
Tevatron collider, or will be at a 500 GeV linear collider. The signatures also
provide interesting challenges for the LHC. In addition, these models usually
account for electroweak symmetry breaking with relatively less fine-tuning than
previous benchmark models.Comment: 44 pages, 4 figures; some typos corrected. Revisions reflect
published versio
Brane Inflation, Solitons and Cosmological Solutions: I
In this paper we study various cosmological solutions for a D3/D7 system
directly from M-theory with fluxes and M2-branes. In M-theory, these solutions
exist only if we incorporate higher derivative corrections from the curvatures
as well as G-fluxes. We take these corrections into account and study a number
of toy cosmologies, including one with a novel background for the D3/D7 system
whose supergravity solution can be completely determined. This new background
preserves all the good properties of the original model and opens up avenues to
investigate cosmological effects from wrapped branes and brane-antibrane
annihilation, to name a few. We also discuss in some detail semilocal defects
with higher global symmetries, for example exceptional ones, that could occur
in a slightly different regime of our D3/D7 model. We show that the D3/D7
system does have the required ingredients to realise these configurations as
non-topological solitons of the theory. These constructions also allow us to
give a physical meaning to the existence of certain underlying homogeneous
quaternionic Kahler manifolds.Comment: Harvmac, 115 pages, 9 .eps figures; v2: typos corrected, references
added and the last section expanded; v3: Few minor typos corrected and
references added. Final version to appear in JHE
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