Tachyon Condensation for Intersecting Branes at Small and Large Angles

We review the worldsheet analysis for intersecting branes with focus on small and large angles. For small angles, we review the Yang-Mills fluctuation analysis in hep-th/0303204 and find an additional family of massless modes. They are the components of a Goldstone scalar corresponding to the spontaneously broken U(2)-gauge symmetry. For branes at large angles, we derive an effective tachyon field theory from BSFT results. We show how the gauge symmetry of this system implies a mass spectrum which is consistent with the worldsheet analysis.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures; references added; one definition clarifie

Flux-induced Soft Supersymmetry Breaking in Chiral Type IIB Orientifolds with D3/D7-Branes

We discuss supersymmetry breaking via 3-form fluxes in chiral supersymmetric type IIB orientifold vacua with D3- and D7-branes. After a general discussion of possible choices of fluxes allowing for stabilizing of a part of the moduli, we determine the resulting effective action including all soft supersymmetry breaking terms. We also extend the computation of our previous work concerning the matter field metrics arising from various open string sectors, in particular focusing on the 1/2 BPS D3/D7-brane configuration. Afterwards, the F-theory lift of our constructions is investigated.Comment: 55 pages, harvma

A Large Class of New Gravitational and Axionic Backgrounds for Four-Dimensional Superstrings

A large class of new 4-D superstring vacua with non-trivial/singular geometries, spacetime supersymmetry and other background fields (axion, dilaton) are found. Killing symmetries are generic and are associated with non-trivial dilaton and antisymmetric tensor fields. Duality symmetries preserving N=2 superconformal invariance are employed to generate a large class of explicit metrics for non-compact 4-D Calabi-Yau manifolds with Killing symmetries.Comment: LateX file, 34pp., (v5) Some misprints corrected in sections 3.1, 3.2 as pointed out in the paper of Hori and Kapustin (hep-th/0203147). Some comsetic changes also made in the same section

Duality Symmetries and Supersymmetry Breaking in String Compactifications

We discuss the spontaneous supersymetry breaking within the low-energy effective supergravity action of four-dimensional superstrings. In particular, we emphasize the non-universality of the soft supersymmetry breaking parameters, the $\mu$-problem and the duality symmetries.Comment: (invited talk to the 27th ICHEP, Glasgow, July 1994), 11 page

The Neveu-Schwarz Five-Brane and its Dual Geometries

In this paper we discuss two aspects of duality transformations on the Neveu-Schwarz (NS) 5-brane solutions in type II and heterotic string theories. First we demonstrate that the non-extremal NS 5-brane background is U-dual to its CGHS limit, a two-dimensional black hole times $S^3\times T^5$; an intermediate step is provided by the near horizon geometry which is given by the three-dimensional $BTZ_3$ black hole (being closely related to $AdS_3$) times $S^3\times T^4$. In the second part of the paper we discuss the T-duality between $k$ NS 5-branes and the Taub-NUT spaces respectively ALE spaces, which are related to the resolution of the $A_{k-1}$ singularities of the non-compact orbifold ${\bf C}^2/{\bf Z}_{k}$. In particular in the framework of N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories related to brane box constructions we give the metric dual to two sets of intersecting NS 5-branes. In this way we get a picture of a dual orbifold background ${\bf C}^3/ \Gamma$ which is fibered together out of two N=2 models ($\Gamma={\bf Z}_k\times {\bf Z}_{k'}$). Finally we also discuss the intersection of NS 5-branes with D branes, which can serve as probes of the dual background spaces.Comment: 18pp, added reference

Heterotic String Theory on non-Kaehler Manifolds with H-Flux and Gaugino Condensate

We discuss compactifications of heterotic string theory to four dimensions in the presence of H-fluxes, which deform the geometry of the internal manifold, and a gaugino condensate which breaks supersymmetry. We focus on the compensation of the two effects in order to obtain vacua with zero cosmological constant and we comment on the effective superpotential describing these vacua.Comment: 6 page

Thermodynamics of Asymptotically Flat Charged Black Holes in Third Order Lovelock Gravity

We present a new class of asymptotically flat charge static solutions in third order Lovelock gravity. These solutions present black hole solutions with two inner and outer event horizons, extreme black holes or naked singularities provided the parameters of the solutions are chosen suitable. We find that the uncharged asymptotically flat solutions can present black hole with two inner and outer horizons. This kind of solution does not exist in Einstein or Gauss-Bonnet gravity, and it is a special effect in third order Lovelock gravity. We compute temperature, entropy, charge, electric potential and mass of the black hole solutions, and find that these quantities satisfy the first law of thermodynamics. We also perform a stability analysis by computing the determinant of Hessian matrix of the mass with respect to its thermodynamic variables in both the canonical and the grand-canonical ensembles, and show that there exists only an intermediate stable phase.Comment: 16 pages, two figures, a few references, and one sections added. Some properties of these new solutions which are different from Gauss-Bonnet gravity have been highlighte