String theory imposes modifications to Einstein's equations of classical general relativity. Consequently, we calculate the additional corrections to the classical tests: the perihelion precession of Mercury, the deflection of light rays by the sun, and the gravitational redshift which should be present if these modified equations hold. In each case, we determine --- quite consistently with expectations --- that the stringy effects are much too small to be measured.
Dictated by Symmetry Principle, string theory predicts not General Relativity but its own gravity which assumes the entire closed string massless sector to be geometric and thus gravitational. In terms of $R/(MG)$, i.e. the dimensionless radial variable normalized by mass, Stringy Gravity agrees with General Relativity toward infinity, but modifies it at short distance. At far short distance, gravitational force can be even repulsive. These may solve the dark matter and energy problems, as they arise essentially from small $R/(MG)$ observations: long distance divided by much heavier mass. We a…
We study stringy fluctuations as a source for corrections to the Wilson loop as obtained from the superstrings on (adS_5 x S^5)/ N=4 SYM correspondence. We give a formal expression in terms of determinants of two dimensional operators for the leading order correction.
We consider the effects of a gas of closed strings (treated quantum mechanically) on a background where one dimension is compactified on a circle. After we address the effects of a time dependent background on aspects of the string spectrum that concern us, we derive the energy-momentum tensor for a string gas and investigate the resulting space-time dynamics. We show that a variety of trajectories are possible for the radius of the compactified dimension, depending on the nature of the string gas, including a demonstration within the context of General Relativity (i.e. without a dilaton) of a…
We investigate the combined effect of fluxes and higher-order curvature corrections, in the form of the Gauss-Bonnet term, on the existence of de Sitter vacua in a heterotic string inspired framework, compactified on spheres and tori. We first gain some intuition on the effects of these corrections by studying a perturbative expansion in the small Gauss-Bonnet coupling. Then, for choices of potential closer to the string theory predictions, we show that the inclusion of quadratic curvature corrections actually reduces the parametric likelihood of de Sitter solutions.
We consider string theory corrections to 4D black holes which solve the 5D vacuum Einstein equations. We find that the corrections vanish only for the extremal electric solution. We also show that for the non-extremal electric black hole the mass corrections are related to the charge corrections. The implications to string states counting and the correspondence principle for black holes and strings are discussed.
The structure of stringy quantum corrections to four-dimensional effective theories is particularly interesting for string phenomenology and attempts to stabilize moduli. We consider the heterotic string compactified on a Calabi-Yau space. For this case, we compute the leading corrections to the kinetic terms of moduli fields. The structure of these corrections is largely dictated by the underlying higher-dimensional extended supersymmetry. We find corrections generically of order (alpha')^2 rather than of order (alpha')^3 found in type II compactifications or heterotic compactifications with …
We study the stringy instanton partition function of four dimensional ${\cal N}=2$ $U(N)$ supersymmetric gauge theory which was obtained by Bonelli et al in 2013. In type IIB string theory on $\mathbb{C}^2\times T^*\mathbb{P}^1\times \mathbb{C}$, the stringy $U(N)$ instantons of charge $k$ are described by $k$ D1-branes wrapping around the $\mathbb{P}^1$ bound to $N$ D5-branes on $\mathbb{C}^2\times \mathbb{P}^1$. The KK corrections induced by compactification of the $\mathbb{P}^1$ give the stringy corrections. We find a relation between the stringy instanton partition function whose quantum s…
Upon treating the whole closed string massless sector as stringy graviton fields, Double Field Theory may evolve into Stringy Gravity, i.e. the stringy augmentation of General Relativity. Equipped with an $\mathrm{O}(D,D)$ covariant differential geometry beyond Riemann, we spell out the definition of the Energy-Momentum tensor in Stringy Gravity and derive its on-shell conservation law from doubled general covariance. Equating it with the recently identified stringy Einstein curvature tensor, all the equations of motion of the closed string massless sector are unified into a single expression,…
We discuss a string model where a conformal four-dimensional N=2 gauge theory receives corrections to its gauge kinetic functions from "stringy" instantons. These contributions are explicitly evaluated by exploiting the localization properties of the integral over the stringy instanton moduli space. The model we consider corresponds to a setup with D7/D3-branes in type I' theory compactified on T4/Z2 x T2, and possesses a perturbatively computable heterotic dual. In the heteoric side the corrections to the quadratic gauge couplings are provided by a 1-loop threshold computation and, under the …
We argue that classical $(α')$ effects qualitatively modify the structure of Euclidean black hole horizons in string theory. While low energy modes experience the geometry familiar from general relativity, high energy ones see a rather different geometry, in which the Euclidean horizon can be penetrated by an amount that grows with the radial momentum of the probe. We discuss this in the exactly solvable SL(2,R)/U(1) black hole, where it is a manifestation of the black hole/Sine-Liouville duality.
We study the leading $α^\prime$ corrections to the entropy of certain black holes with AdS$_5\times S^5$ asymptotics. We find that, in the supersymmetric limit, the entropy does not receive $α^\prime$ corrections. This result strengthens recent calculations that match the index of $\mathcal{N}=4$ Super-Yang-Mills with the corresponding partition function in the supersymmetric limit. In the small temperature regime, we find that the entropy corrections are concordant with the weak gravity conjecture.
We consider one of the simplest time-dependent backgrounds in M-theory, describing the shrinking away of the M-theory dimension with the other spatial dimensions static. As the M-theory dimension becomes small, the situation becomes well-described by string theory in a singular cosmological background where the string coupling tends to zero but the $α'$-corrections become large, near the cosmic singularity. We compute these $α'$-corrections, both for the background and for linearized perturbations, in heterotic string theory, and show they may be reproduced by a map from eleven-dimensional M-t…
In this paper we explicitly obtain the leading corrections to the SU(N) N=2 prepotential due to stringy instantons both in flat space-time and in the presence of a non-trivial graviphoton background field. We show that the stringy corrections to the prepotential are expressible in terms of the elementary symmetric polynomials. For N>2 the theory is not conformal; we discuss the introduction of an explicit dependence on the string scale α' in the low-energy effective action through the stringy non-perturbative sector.
In low-energy effective string theory, $α'$ corrections involve the coupling of the dilaton field to Gauss-Bonnet term. We assume that the dilaton potential is fine tuned so that the dilaton field may oscillate rapidly for a while around the minimum of its potential but the inflation background is not affected. By numerical method, we find that if the dilaton starts to oscillate at the time of about $\sim 60$ e-folds before the end of inflation, $α^\prime$ correction may bring unusual oscillations to the inflationary gravitational wave spectrum, which might be measurably imprinted in the CMB B…
The String Uncertainty Relations have been known for some time as the stringy corrections to the original Heisenberg's Uncertainty principle. In this letter the Stringy Uncertainty relations, and corrections thereof, are explicitly derived from the New Relativity Principle that treats all dimensions and signatures on the same footing and which is based on the postulate that the Planck scale is the minimal length in Nature in the same vein that the speed of light was taken as the maximum velocity in Einstein's theory of Special Relativity. The Regge behaviour of the string's spectrum is also a …
Recently, it has been shown that if we consider the higher derivative correction, the viscosity bound conjectured to be $η/s=1/4π$ is violated and so is the causality. In this paper, we consider medium effect and the higher derivative correction simultaneously by adding charge and Gauss-Bonnet terms. We find that the viscosity bound violation is not changed by the charge. However, we find that two effects together create another instability for large momentum regime. We argue the presence of tachyonic modes and show it numerically. The stability of the black brane requires the Gauss-Bonnet cou…
The moduli of N=1 compactifications of IIB string theory can be stabilized by a combination of fluxes (which freeze complex structure moduli and the dilaton) and nonperturbative superpotentials (which freeze Kahler moduli), typically leading to supersymmetric AdS vacua. We show that stringy corrections to the Kahler potential qualitatively alter the structure of the effective scalar potential even at large volume, and can give rise to non-supersymmetric vacua including metastable de Sitter spacetimes. Our results suggest an approach to solving the cosmological constant problem, so that the sca…
Using instanton effects, we discuss the problem of fermion mass hierarchies in an MSSM-like Type IIA orientifolded model with U(3)xSp(1)xU(1)xU(1) gauge symmetry obtained from intersecting D6-branes. In the corresponding four-stack quiver, the different scales of the generated superpotential couplings offer a partial solution to fermion mass hierarchies. Using the known data with neutrino masses m_{v_τ}\lesssim 2 eV, we give the magnitudes of the relevant scales.
We analyze the effects of zeta-function regularization on the evaluation of quantum corrections to spinning strings. Previously, this method was applied in the sl(2) subsector and yielded agreement to third order in perturbation theory with the quantum string Bethe ansatz. In this note we discuss related sums and compare zeta-function regularization against exact evaluation of the sums, thereby showing that the zeta-function regularized expression misses out perturbative as well as non-perturbative terms. In particular, this may imply corrections to the proposed quantum string Bethe equations.…
We consider hairy black hole solutions of Einstein-Yang-Mills-Dilaton theory, coupled to a Gauss-Bonnet curvature term, and we study their stability under small, spacetime-dependent perturbations. We demonstrate that the stringy corrections do not remove the sphaleronic instabilities of the coloured black holes with the number of unstable modes being equal to the number of nodes of the background gauge function. In the gravitational sector, and in the limit of an infinitely large horizon, the coloured black holes are also found to be unstable. Similar behaviour is exhibited by the magnetically…
We study the first-order in $α'$ corrections to 4-charge black holes (with the Reissner-Nordström black hole as a particular example) beyond the near-horizon limit in the Heterotic Superstring effective action framework. The higher-curvature terms behave as delocalized sources in the equations of motion and in the Bianchi identity of the 3-form. For some charges, this introduces a shift between their values measured at the horizon and asymptotically. Some of these corrections and their associated charge shifts, but not all of them, can be canceled using appropriate SU$(2)$ instantons for the h…
We study cosmological solutions to the low-energy effective action of heterotic string theory including possible leading order $α'$ corrections and a potential for the dilaton. We consider the possibility that including such stringy corrections can resolve the initial cosmological singularity. Since the exact form of these corrections is not known the higher-derivative terms are constructed so that they vanish when the metric is de Sitter spacetime. The constructed terms are compatible with known restrictions from scattering amplitude and string worldsheet beta-function calculations. Analytic …
We consider the finite temperature phase diagram of holographic QCD in the Veneziano limit (Nc large, Nf large with xf=Nf/Nc fixed) and calculate one string-loop corrections to the free energy in certain approximations. Such corrections, especially due to the pion modes are unsuppressed in the Veneziano limit. We find that under some extra assumptions the first order transition following from classical gravity solutions can become second order. If stringy asymptotics are of a special form and there are residual interactions it may even become of third order. Operationally these computations im…
The target-space interpretation of the exact (in $α'$) reflection coefficient for scattering from Euclidean black-hole horizons in classical string theory is studied. For concreteness, we focus on the solvable $SL(2, \mathbb{R})_k/U(1)$ black hole. It is shown that it exhibits a fascinating UV/IR mixing, dramatically modifying the late-time behavior of general relativity. We speculate that this might play an important role in the black-hole information puzzle, as well as in clarifying features related with the non-locality of Little String Theory.
We define a wave-function for string theory cosmological backgrounds. We give a prescription for computing its norm following an earlier analysis within general relativity. Under Euclidean continuation, the cosmologies we discuss in this paper are described in terms of compact parafermionic worldsheet systems. To define the wave-function we provide a T-fold description of the parafermionic conformal field theory, and of the corresponding string cosmology. In specific examples, we compute the norm of the wave-function and comment on its behavior as a function of moduli.
Pole-skipping is a recently discovered signature of many-body quantum chaos in collective energy dynamics. It establishes a precise connection between resummed, all-order hydrodynamics and the underlying microscopic chaos. In this paper, we demonstrate the existence of pole-skipping in holographic conformal field theories with higher-derivative gravity duals. In particular, we first consider Einstein-Hilbert gravity deformed by curvature-squared ($R^2$) corrections and then type IIB supergravity theory with the $α'^3 R^4$ term, where $α'$ is set by the length of the fundamental string. The for…
We consider black holes in anti-de Sitter space AdS_{p+2} (p = 2,3,5), which have hyperbolic, flat or spherical event horizons. The $O(α'^3)$ corrections (or the leading corrections in powers of the eleven-dimensional Planck length) to the black hole metrics are computed for the various topologies and dimensions. We investigate the consequences of the stringy or M-theory corrections for the black hole thermodynamics. In particular, we show the emergence of a stable branch of small spherical black holes. We obtain the corrected Hawking-Page transition temperature for black holes with spherical …
In [1] we gave a precise holographic calculation of chaos at the scrambling time scale. We studied the influence of a small perturbation, long in the past, on a two-sided correlation function in the thermofield double state. A similar analysis applies to squared commutators and other out-of-time-order one-sided correlators [2-4]. The essential bulk physics is a high energy scattering problem near the horizon of an AdS black hole. The above papers used Einstein gravity to study this problem; in the present paper we consider stringy and Planckian corrections. Elastic stringy corrections play an …
In this paper we examine the stability of non-supersymmetric attractors in type IIA supergravity compactified on a Calabi-Yau manifold, in the presence of sub-leading corrections to the N=$ pre-potential. We study black hole configurations carrying D0-D6 and D0-D4 charges. We consider the O(1) corrections to the pre-potential given by the Euler number of the Calabi-Yau manifold. We argue that such corrections in general can not lift the zero modes for the D0-D6 attractors. However, for the attractors carrying the D0-D4 charges, they affect the zero modes in the vector multiplet sector. We show…
We show that in string theory, due to non-perturbative effects, there are cases in which two states that semi-classically are completely different, are in fact the same. One state cannot be excited without exciting the other; they are two components of the same state in the exact theory. As a result, in some situations that include black holes, the nature of information in string theory is dramatically different than in field theory. In particular, each general-relativity state, that lives in the atmosphere of black fivebranes, is accompanied with an excitation that lives on folded strings, wh…
We study the first-order $α'$ corrections to the singular 4-dimensional massless stringy black holes studied in the nineties in the context of the Heterotic Superstring. We show that the $α'$ corrections not only induce a non-vanishing mass and give rise to an event horizon, but also eliminate the singularity giving rise to a regular spacetime whose global structure includes further asymptotically flat regions in which the spacetime's mass is positive or negative. We study the timelike and null geodesics and their effective potential, showing that the spacetime is geodesically complete. We dis…
By studying string loop corrections to superpotential of type II strings compactified on Calabi-Yau threefolds we find a quantum stringy test and a confirmation of a recent proposal of Strominger on the fate of the conifold singularity. We also propose a connection between the spectrum of Bogomolnyi saturated solitons and one-loop string partition function of $N=2$ topological strings.
We explicitly analyse $O(α')$ corrections to heterotic supergravity on toroidal orbifolds and their resolutions, which play important roles in string phenomenology as well as moduli stabilisation. Using a conformal factor ansatz that is valid only for four dimensional geometries, we obtain a closed expression for the $O(α')$ metric corrections in the case of several orbifold limits of K3, namely $T^4/\mathbb{Z}_n$ where $n=2,3,4,6$. However, we find that non-standard embedding requires the inclusion of five-branes on such orbifolds. We also numerically investigate the behaviour around orbifold…
We consider a class of 4D supersymmetric black hole solutions, arising from string theory compactifications, which classically have vanishing horizon area and singular space-time geometry. String theory motivates the inclusion of higher derivative terms, which convert these singular classical solutions into regular black holes with finite horizon area. In particular, the supersymmetric attractor equations imply that the central charge, which determines the radius of the $AdS_2\times S^2$ near horizon geometry, acquires a non-vanishing value due to quantum effects. In this case quantum correcti…
Supergravity analysis suggests that the effect of fluxes in string theory compactifications is to gauge isometries of the scalar manifold. However, isometries are generically broken by brane instanton effects. Here we demonstrate how fluxes protect exactly those isometries from quantum corrections which are gauged according to the classical supergravity analysis. We also argue that all other isometries are generically broken.
We extend and generalise the string corrections to the EM memory to the Type I superstring including spin effects. Very much as in the simpler bosonic string context, the relevant corrections are non-perturbative in $α'$, slowly decaying (as $1/R$) at large distances and modulated in retarded time $u=t-R$. For spin $N$ states in the first Regge trajectory they entail a sequence of $N$ derivatives wrt $u$ on the `parent' $N=0$ amplitude. We also briefly discuss how to include loop effects, that broaden and shift the string resonances, and how to modify our analysis for macroscopic semi-classica…
We discuss the properties of the gas of primordial `stringy' black holes possibly formed in the high-curvature phase preceding the bouncing transition to the phase of standard cosmological evolution. We show that the regime dominated by such a string-hole gas can be consistently described by explicit solutions of the string effective action including first-order $α'$ corrections. We present a phase space analysis of the stability of such solutions comparing the results obtained from different actions and including the possibility of $O(d,d)$-symmetric configurations.
Non-local (alpha prime) corrections to Schwarzschild black holes are shown to invalidate the thermodynamical interpretation of black holes. In particular, the canonical and Bekenstein-Hawking temperatures are not equal. The particle number density of fields quantized in the (alpha prime modified) black hole background is no longer thermal. In the non-perturbative region (alpha prime going to infinity or mass going to zero), an analytic continuation to the number density is shown to vanish exponentially.
Motivated by gauge/gravity group in the low energy effective theory of the heterotic string theory and novel aspects of massive gravity in the context of lattice physics, the minimal coupling of Gauss-Bonnet-massive gravity with Born-Infeld electrodynamics is considered. At first, the metric function is calculated and then the geometrical properties of the solutions are investigated. It is found that there is an essential singularity at the origin and the intrinsic curvature is regular elsewhere. In addition, the effects of massive parameters are studied and black hole solutions with multi hor…
A mild version of the weak gravity conjecture (WGC) states that extremal black holes have charge-to-mass ratio larger or equal than one when higher-curvature interactions are taken into account. Since these corrections become more relevant in the low-mass regime, this would allow the decay of extremal black holes in terms of energy and charge conservation. Evidence in this direction has been mainly given in the context of corrections to Einstein-Maxwell theory. Here we compute corrections to the charge-to-mass ratio of some dyonic extremal black holes explicitly embedded in the heterotic strin…
Seiberg-Witten theory can be embedded in F-theory using D3 branes probing an orientifold geometry. The non-perturbative corrections in the orientifold picture map directly to the instanton corrections in the corresponding gauge theory that convert the classical moduli space to the quantum one. In this short review we argue that the recently proposed class of conformal Gaiotto models may also be embedded in F-theory. The F-theory constructions help us not only to understand the Gaiotto dualities but also to extend to the non-conformal cases with and without cascading behaviors. For the conforma…
A Palatini-type action for Einstein and Gauss-Bonnet gravity with non-trivial torsion is proposed. Three-form flux is incorporated via a deformation of the Riemann tensor, and consistency of the Palatini variational principle requires the flux to be covariantly constant and to satisfy a Jacobi identity. Studying gravity actions of third order in the curvature leads to a conjecture about general Palatini-Lovelock-Cartan gravity. We point out potential relations to string-theoretic Bianchi identities and, using the Schouten-Nijenhuis bracket, derive a set of Bianchi identities for the non-geomet…
In this paper we revisit the formulation of scalar field theories on de Sitter backgrounds subject to the generalized uncertainty principle (GUP). The GUP arises in several contexts in string theory, but is most readily thought of as resulting from using strings as effective probes of geometry, which suggests an uncertainty relation incorporating the string scale $l_s$. After reviewing the string theoretic case for the GUP, which implies a minimum length scale $l_s$, we follow in the footsteps of Kempf and concern ourselves with how one might write down field theories which respect the GUP. We…
Supersymmetric localization has lead to remarkable progress in computing quantum corrections to BPS black hole entropy. The program has been successful especially for computing perturbative corrections to the Bekenstein-Hawking area formula. In this work, we consider non-perturbative corrections related to polar states in the Rademacher expansion, which describes the entropy in the microcanonical ensemble. We propose that these non-perturbative effects can be identified with a new family of saddles in the localization of the quantum entropy path integral. We argue that these saddles, which are…
There has been considerable recent interest in holographic complexity. The two leading conjectures on this subject hold that the quantum complexity of the boundary thermofield double state should be dual to either the volume of the Einstein-Rosen bridge connecting the two sides (CV conjecture) or to the action of the Wheeler-de-Witt patch of the bulk spacetime (CA conjecture). Although these conjectures are frequently studied in the context of pure Einstein gravity, from the perspective of string theory it is also natural to consider models of gravity in which general relativity is perturbed b…
We consider inflationary cosmology in the context of string compactifications with multiple throats. In scenarios where the warping differs significantly between throats, string and Kaluza-Klein physics can generate potentially observable corrections to the cosmology of inflation and reheating. First we demonstrate that a very low string scale in the ground state compactification is incompatible with a high Hubble scale during inflation, and we propose that the compactification geometry is altered during inflation. In this configuration, the lowest scale is just above the Hubble scale, which i…
It is well known that non-perturbative $α'$ corrections to the $SL(2,\IR)/U(1)$ cigar geometry are described via a condensation of a Sine-Liouville operator that schematically can be written as $W^{+}+W^{-}$, where $W^{\pm}$ describe a string with winding number $\pm 1$. This condensation leads to interesting effects in the cigar geometry that take place already at the classical level in string theory. Condensation of the analytically continued Sine-Liouville operator in the Lorentzian $SL(2,\IR)/U(1)$ black hole is problematic. Here, we propose that in the black hole case, the non-perturbativ…
We study string theory in supersymmetric time-dependent backgrounds. In the framework of general relativity, supersymmetry for spacetimes without flux implies the existence of a covariantly constant null vector, and a relatively simple form of the metric. As a result, the local nature of any such spacetime can be easily understood. We show that we can view any such geometry as a sequence of solutions to lower-dimensional Euclidean gravity. If we choose the lower-dimensional solutions to degenerate at some light-cone time, we obtain null singularities, which may be thought of as generalizations…
Extensions (modifications) of the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle are derived within the framework of the theory of Special Scale-Relativity proposed by Nottale. In particular, generalizations of the Stringy Uncertainty Principle are obtained where the size of the strings is bounded by the Planck scale and the size of the Universe. Based on the fractal structures inherent with two dimensional Quantum Gravity, which has attracted considerable interest recently, we conjecture that the underlying fundamental principle behind String theory should be based on an extension of the Scale Relativity p…
Double Field Theory suggests to view the whole massless sector of closed strings as the gravitational unity. The fundamental symmetries therein, including the $\mathbf{O}(D,D)$ covariance, can determine unambiguously how the Standard Model as well as a relativistic point particle should couple to the closed string massless sector. The theory also refines the notion of singularity. We consider the most general, spherically symmetric, asymptotically flat, static vacuum solution to ${D=4}$ Double Field Theory, which contains three free parameters and consequently generalizes the Schwarzschild geo…
