February 23, 2001
We find a new class of cosmic string solutions with non-vanishing magnetic flux of $\mathcal{N}=1$, D=4 supergravity with a cosmological constant and coupled to any number of Maxwell and scalar multiplets. We show that these magnetic cosmic string solutions preserve 1/2 of supersymmetry. We give an explicit example of such a solution for which the complex scalars are constant and the spacetime is smooth with topology $R^{1,1}\times S^2$. Two more examples are explored for whi...
September 4, 2003
A global picture is drawn tying together most exact cosmological solutions of gravitational theories in four or more spacetime dimensions.
October 19, 2022
We study 4d Friedmann-Lema\^{i}tre-Robertson-Walker cosmologies obtained from time-dependent compactifications of Type IIA 10d supergravity on various classes of 6d manifolds (Calabi-Yau, Einstein, Einstein-K\"{a}hler). The cosmologies we present are universal in that they do not depend on the detailed features of the compactification manifold, but only on the properties which are common to all the manifolds belonging to that class. Once the equations of motion are rewritten ...
January 23, 2006
We derive a set of exact cosmological solutions to the D=4, N=1 supergravity description of heterotic M-theory. Having identified a new and exact SU(3) Toda model solution, we then apply symmetry transformations to both this solution and to a previously known SU(2) Toda model, in order to derive two further sets of new cosmological solutions. In the symmetry-transformed SU(3) Toda case we find an unusual "bouncing" motion for the M5 brane, such that this brane can be made to ...
August 19, 2013
We confront the problem of giving a fundamental definition to perturbative string theory in spacetimes with totally compact space (taken to be a torus for simplicity, though the nature of the problem is very general) and non-compact time. Due to backreaction induced by the presence of even a single string quantum, the usual formulation of perturbative string theory in a fixed classical background is infrared-divergent at all subleading orders in the string coupling, and needs...
September 25, 2021
We investigate the effects of the leading tadpole potentials of 10D tachyon-free non-supersymmetric strings in warped products of flat geometries of the type M(p+1) x R x T(10-p-2) depending on a single coordinate. In the absence of fluxes and for p<8, there are two families of these vacua for the orientifold disk-level potential, both involving a finite internal interval. Their asymptotics are surprisingly captured by tadpole-free solutions, isotropic for one family and anis...
April 27, 2006
We present arguments for the existence of new black string solutions with negative cosmological constant. These higher-dimensional configurations have no dependence on the `compact' extra dimension, and their conformal infinity is the product of time and $S^{d-3}\times R$ or $H^{d-3}\times R$. The configurations with an event horizon topology $S^{d-2}\times S^1$ have a nontrivial, globally regular limit with zero event horizon radius. We discuss the general properties of such...
October 3, 2003
Within an adiabatic approximation, thermodynamical equilibrium and a small, nine dimensional, toroidal universe as initial conditions, we analyze the evolution of the dimensions in two different regimes: (i) the Hagedorn regime, with a single scale factor with a nearly constant time evolution (ii) an almost-radiation dominated regime, including the leading corrections due to the lightest Kaluza Klein and winding modes, in which for some initial conditions the large dimensions...
July 22, 1997
The low energy effective actions which arise from string theory or M-theory are considered in the cosmological context, where the graviton, dilaton and antisymmetric tensor field strengths depend only on time. We show that previous results can be extended to include cosmological solutions that are related to the E_N Toda equations. The solutions of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation in minisuperspace are obtained for some of the simpler cosmological models by introducing intertwinin...
December 11, 1995
Recent progress on string theory in curved spacetimes is reviewed. The string dynamics in cosmological and black hole spacetimes is investigated.The methods to solve the string equations of motion in curved spacetimes are described.That is, the perturbation approach, the null approach, the $\tau$-expansion, and the construction of global solutions.The behaviour of strings in FRW and inflatio- nary spacetimes is obtained from the various types of string solutions. Three differ...