We consider gauge messenger models in which X and Y gauge bosons and gauginos are messengers of supersymmetry breaking. In simple gauge messenger models, all the soft parameters except μ and Bμ are calculated in terms of a single scale parameter MSUSY which is proportional to F/MGUT. Unique prediction on dark matter in gauge messenger models is discussed. (Based on hep-ph/0601036 and hep-ph/060...

In this paper we investigate the recently found γ-deformed Maldacena-Nunez background by studying the behavior of different semiclassical string configurations. This background is conjectured to be dual to dipole deformations of N = 1 SYM. We compare our results to those in the pure Maldacena-Nunez background and show that the energies of our string configurations are higher than in the undefor...

We derive the general equations of motion for a braneworld containing a (localized) domain wall. Euclideanization gives the geometry for braneworld false vacuum decay. We explicitly derive these instantons and compute the amplitude for false vacuum decay. We also show how to construct a toy ekpyrotic instanton. Finally, we comment on braneworlds with a compact spatial direction and the adS soli...

This is a summary of the work in the author’s recent paper with this title written with Jerome Gauntlett, George Papadopoulos and Paul Townsend, hep-th/97022012. We showed how to construct hyper-Kähler 8metrics in terms of arrangements of three-dimensional hyperplanes in six-dimensional euclidean space. The slopes of the planes define two relatively prime integers (p, q). Under reduction to ten...

We study string theory on the analytically continued β deformed background proposed in hep-th/0509036. This non-static model provides a solvable conformal field theory which describes time-dependent twisted string dynamics. With the mini-superspace approach, we examine disk one-point correlators of D-branes and compute winding string pair production rate. We find that these results are consiste...

In these lectures I discuss the possibility that superstrings of cosmic length might exist and be observable. I first review the original idea of cosmic strings arising as gauge theory solitons, and discuss in particular their network properties and the observational bounds that rule out cosmic strings as the principal origin of structure in our universe. I then consider cosmic superstrings, in...