NUMERICAL EXPLORATION OF THE STRING THEORY LANDSCAPE.
Metallinos, Konstantinos.
2013
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Abstract: String theory is the best candidate to provide a consistent quantum
theory of gravity. Its ten dimensional formulation forces us to perform a compactification
of the six unobserved dimensions in a very special compact manifold known as Calabi- Yau.
The standard way to address this issue is through the flux compactification scenarios. One
of the major implications of these scenarios ... read moreis that the string theory cannot provide a
single and unique vacum as a solution. Rather one can find an extremely large set of
solutions, each with its own physical properties. This is the string theory Landscape. In
the first part we present the formal description of the flux compactification theory. From
the four dimensional point of view this is a supersymmetric theory, fully described only by
two functions, the superpotential and the Kahler potential. Their expressions are crucially
depend on the geometrical properties of the compact manifold. By writing these functions
for the specific Calabi-Yau manifold P_{11169} we are looking firstly for supersymmetric
and then after breaking the supersymmetry, for non-supersymmetric numerical solutions.
These solutions describe the possible vacua and our goal is using statistical analysis to
categorize them based on their cosmological properties and to check their stability.
Finally we present the existence of stable dS vacua with and without adding an uplifting
term on the potential. In the case where there is not an uplifting term the breaking of
supersymmetry is done by incorporating α' corrections to the Kahler potential. In
the second part we construct a KKLT like inflation model, within string theory flux
compactifications and, in particular a model of accidental inflation. We investigate the
possibility that the apparent fine-tuning of the low energy parameters of the theory needed
to have inflation can be generically obtained by scanning the values of the fluxes over the
landscape. Furthermore, we find that the existence of a landscape of eternal inflation in
this model provides us with a natural theory of initial conditions for the inflationary
period in our vacuum. We demonstrate how these two effects work in a small corner of the
landscape associated with the complex structure of the Calabi-Yau manifold P_{11169} by
numerically investigating the flux vacua of a reduced moduli space. This allows us to
obtain the distribution of observable parameters for inflation in this mini-landscape
directly from the fluxes.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2013.
Submitted to the Dept. of Physics.
Advisor: Jose Blanco-Pillado.
Committee: Ken Olum, Per Berglund, Anthony Mann, Krzysztof Sliwa, and Larry Ford.
Keyword: Physics.read less - ID:
- k3569h07q
- Component ID:
- tufts:21959
- To Cite:
- TARC Citation Guide EndNote
