Particle theory

Abstract:

We study four-dimensional low energy effective actions for conifold transitions of Calabi-Yau spaces in the context of IIB supergravity. The actions are constructed by examining the mass of D3-branes wrapped on collapsing/expanding three-cycles. We then study the cosmology of the conifold transition, including consequences for moduli stabilization, taking into account the effect of the additional states which become light at the transition. We find, the degree to which the additional states are excited is essential for whether the transition is dynamically realized. © 2005 The American Physical Society.

Abstract:

Gauge theory-gravity duality predicts that the shear viscosity of N = 4 supersymmetric SU(Nc) Yang-Mills plasma at temperature T in the limit of large N c and large 't Hooft coupling gYM2Nc is independent of the coupling and equals to πNc2T3 /8. In this paper, we compute the leading correction to the shear viscosity in inverse powers of 't Hooft coupling using the α′-corrected low-energy effective action of type IIB string theory. We also find the correction to the ratio of shear viscosity to the volume entropy density (equal to 1/4π in the limit of infinite coupling). The correction to 1/4π scales as (gYM2Nc) -3/2 with a positive coefficient. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract:

We study the large volume limit of the scalar potential in Calabi-Yau flux compactifications of type IIB string theory. Under general circumstances there exists a limit in which the potential approaches zero from below, with an associated non-supersymmetric AdS minimum at exponentially large volume. Both this and its de Sitter uplift are tachyon-free, thereby fixing all Kahler and complex structure moduli, which has been difficult to achieve in the KKLT scenario. Also, for the class of vacua described in this paper, the gravitino mass is independent of the flux discretuum, whereas the ratio of the string scale to the 4d Planck scale is hierarchically small but flux dependent. The inclusion of alpha' corrections plays a crucial role in the structure of the potential. We illustrate these ideas through explicit computations for a particular Calabi-Yau manifold.