We consider Einstein-Maxwell-Kalb-Ramond gravity-matter system in bulk space-time interacting self-consistently with two (widely separated) codimension-one electrically charged lightlike branes. The lightlike brane dynamics is explicitly given by manifestly reparametrization invariant world-volume actions in two equivalent dual to each other formulations (Polyakov-type and Nambu-Goto-type ones) proposed in our previous work. We find an explicit solution of the pertinent Einstein-Maxwell-Kalb-Ramond-lightlike-brane equations of motion describing a "two-throat" wormhole-like space-time consisting of a "left" compactified Bertotti-Robinson universe connected to a "middle" non-compact Reissner-Nordstroem-de-Sitter space-time region, which in turn is connected to another "right" compactified Bertotti-Robinson universe. Each of the lightlike branes automatically occupies one of the "throats", so that they dynamically induce a sequence of spontaneous space-time compactification/decompactification transitions.
We show that the diagonal light-like solution with 16 supersymmetries in eleven-dimensional supergravity derived in our previous paper (hep-th/0509173) can be generalised to non-diagonal solutions preserving the same number of supersymmetries. This class of solutions contains a subclass equivalent to the class of solutions found by Bin Chen that are dependent on the spatial-coordinates. Utilising these solutions, we construct toroidally compactified solutions that smoothly connect a static compactified region with a dynamically decompactifying region along a null hypersurface.
The aim of the present paper is two-fold. First we describe the Lagrangian dynamics of a recently proposed new class of lightlike p-branes and their interactions with bulk space-time gravity and electromagnetism in a self-consistent manner. Next, we discuss the role of lightlike branes as natural candidates for wormhole "throats" and exemplify the latter by presenting an explicit construction of a new type of asymmetric wormhole solution where the lightlike brane connects a "right" universe with Reissner-Nordstroem geometry to a "left" Bertotti-Robinson universe with two compactified space dim…
We describe a concise general scheme for constructing solutions of Einstein-Maxwell-Kalb-Ramond gravity-matter system in bulk space-time interacting self-consistently with one or more (widely separated) codimension-one electrically charged lightlike branes. The lightlike brane dynamics is explicitly given by manifestly reparametrization invariant world-volume actions. We present several explicit classes of solutions with different physical interpretation as wormhole-like space-times with one, two or more "throats", singularity-free black holes, brane worlds and space-times undergoing a sequenc…
We study field theories in the limit that a compactified dimension becomes lightlike. In almost all cases the amplitudes at each order of perturbation theory diverge in the limit, due to strong interactions among the longitudinal zero modes. The lightlike limit generally exists nonperturbatively, but is more complicated than might have been assumed. Some implications for the matrix theory conjecture are discussed.
Intersecting D-brane configurations are related to black holes in D=4. Using the standard way of compactification only the Reissner-Nordstrøm black hole is non-singular. In this paper we argue, that also the other black holes are non-singular if i) we compactify over a periodic array and ii) we allow the string metric after reaching a critical curvature to choose the dual geometry. Effectively this means that near the horizon the solution completely decompactifies and chooses a non-singular D-brane configuration.
Spacetimes obtained by dimensional reduction along lattices containing a lightlike direction can admit semigroup extensions of their isometry groups. We show by concrete examples that such a semigroup can exhibit a natural order, which in turn implies the existence of preferred coordinate charts on the underlying space. Specifically, for spacetimes which are products of an external Minkowski space with an internal two-dimensional Lorentzian space, where one of the lightlike directions has a compact size, the preferred charts consist of "infinite-momentum" frames on the internal space. This imp…
We identify instantons representing vacuum decay in a 6-dimensional toy model for string theory flux compactifications, with the two extra dimensions compactified on a sphere. We evaluate the instanton action for tunneling between different flux vacua, as well as for the decompactification decay channel. The bubbles resulting from flux tunneling have an unusual structure. They are bounded by two-dimensional branes, which are localized in the extra dimensions. This has important implications for bubble collisions.
We investigate the implications of energy conditions on cosmological compactification solutions of the higher-dimensional Einstein field equations. It is known that the Strong Energy Condition forbids time-independent compactifications to de Sitter space but allows time-dependent compactifications to other (homogeneous and isotropic) expanding universes that undergo a {\it transient} period of acceleration. Here we show that the same assumptions allow compactification to FLRW universes undergoing {late-time} accelerated expansion; the late-time stress tensor is a perfect fluid but with a lower…
This is the transcript of a talk given at the 3rd Simons Workshop in Mathematics and Physics on July 26, 2005. We review the genesis of the CHL (Chaudhuri-Hockney-Lykken) project, explaining both its phenomenological goals and theoretical justification in light of the known vast proliferation of N=1 string vacua. We explain what a CHL compactification is, review some key results such as the construction of moduli spaces with a small number of massless scalar fields, the decompactification of such moduli spaces to one of five consistent ten-dimensional superstring theories, and the appearance o…
Following arXiv:1005.3291 [hep-th], we discuss certain lightlike deformations of $AdS_5\times X^5$ in Type IIB string theory sourced by a lightlike dilaton $Φ(x^+)$ dual to the N=4 super Yang-Mills theory with a lightlike varying gauge coupling. We argue that in the case where the $x^+$-direction is noncompact, these solutions describe anisotropic 3+1-dim Lifshitz-like systems with a potential in the $x^+$-direction generated by the lightlike dilaton. We then describe solutions of this sort with a linear dilaton. This enables a detailed calculation of 2-point correlation functions of operators…
CHL compactifications are supersymmetry preserving orbifolds of any perturbatively renormalizable and ultraviolet finite ground state of the perturbative string theories: heterotic, type I, or type II, preserving 32, 16, 12, 8, 4, (or zero) supersymmetries, and retaining the perturbative renormalizability and finiteness of the parent string vacuum. In this paper, we review the genesis of the CHL (Chaudhuri-Hockney-Lykken) project within the broader context of the full String/M Duality web, establishing the existence of moduli spaces with a small number of massless scalar fields, the decompacti…
We consider topology changing transitions for M-theory compactifications on Calabi-Yau fourfolds with background G-flux. The local geometry of the transition is generically a genus g curve of conifold singularities, which engineers a 3d gauge theory with four supercharges, near the intersection of Coulomb and Higgs branches. We identify a set of canonical, minimal flux quanta which solve the local quantization condition on G for a given geometry, including new solutions in which the flux is neither of horizontal nor vertical type. A local analysis of the flux superpotential shows that the pote…
We study limits of infinite distance in the moduli space of 4d $\mathcal{N} = 2$ string compactifications, in which instanton effects dominate. We first consider trajectories in the hypermultiplet moduli space of type IIB Calabi-Yau compactifications. We observe a correspondence between towers of D-brane instantons and D-brane 4d strings, such that the lighter the string the more relevant the instanton effects are. The dominant instantons modify the classical trajectory such that the lightest D-brane string becomes tensionless even faster, while the other strings are prevented to go below the …
We investigate whether cosmological inflation is possible in a class of flux compactifications of type IIA strings on rigid Calabi-Yau manifolds, when all perturbative string corrections are taken into account. We confine ourselves to the universal hypermultiplet and an abelian vector multiplet, representing matter in four dimensions. Since all axions can be stabilized by D-instantons, we choose dilaton and a Kähler modulus as the only running scalars. Though positivity of their scalar potential can be achieved, we find that there is no slow roll ($\varepsilon > 2$ and $η>2$), and no Graceful …
I study the spontaneous breakdown of supersymmetry when higher-dimensional Yang-Mills or the type-I $SO(32)$ string theory are compactified on magnetized tori. Because of the universal gyromagnetic ratio $g=2$, the splittings of all multiplets are given by the product of charge times internal helicity operators. As a result such compactifications have two remarkable and robust features: {\it (a)} they can reconcile {\it chirality} with {\it extended} low-energy supersymmetry in the limit of large tori, and {\it (b)} they can trigger gauge-symmetry breaking, via Nielsen-Olesen instabilities, at…
We discuss heterotic string theories in two dimensions with gauge groups Spin(24) and Spin(8) x E_8. After compactification the theories exhibit a rich spectrum of states with both winding and momentum. At special points some of these stringy states become massless, leading to new first order phase transitions. For example, the thermal theories exhibit standard thermodynamics below the phase transition, but novel and peculiar behavior above it. In particular, when the radius of the Euclidean circle is smaller than the phase transition point the torus partition function is not given by the ther…
We obtain the Hamiltonian formulation of the 11D Supermembrane theory non-trivially compactified on a twice-punctured torus times a 9D Minkowski space-time. It corresponds to a M2-brane formulated in 11D space with ten non-compact dimensions. The critical points like the poles and the zeros of the fields describing the embedding of the Supermembrane in the target space are treated rigorously. The non-trivial compactification generates non-trivial mass terms appearing in the bosonic potential, which dominate the full supersymmetric potential and should render the spectrum of the (regularized) S…
We study the non-perturbative stability of the Large Volume Scenario (LVS) of IIB string compactifications, by analysing transitions mediated by the Brown-Teitelboim (BT) brane nucleations and by Coleman De Luccia tunneling (CDL). We find that, as long as the effective field theory description holds, the LVS AdS minima are stable despite being non-supersymmetric. This opens the possibility of having a CFT dual. Metastable de Sitter vacua behave differently depending on the uplifting mechanism. We find explicit expressions for the different decay rates in terms of exponentials of the volume. Am…
