Orientador: Prof. Dr. Roldão da Rocha Junior / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Física, 2015. / Revisaremos principalmente modelos de mundos branas em cinco dimensões desde suas ver- sões .nas ou espessas. Em branas .nas revisaremos a formulação de Shiromizu, Maeda e Sasaki e deduziremos as Equações de Einstein efetivas na brana. Veremos que a partir delas podemos veri.car desvios na Relatividade Geral 4D devido à dimensão extra. Analisaremos as implicações diretas na teoria de buracos negros e em alguns aspectos da cosmologia. Ver- emos também um método de expansão que nos permite veri.car a extensão do horizonte de eventos ao bulk, para então introduzirmos cordas negras usando a formulação de Shiromizu, Maeda e Sasaki. Através do método mencionado, mostraremos alguns exemplos que en- volvem dois de nossos trabalhos realizados no período de doutorado. Mostraremos ainda um estudo alternativo que visa analisar as singularidades físicas no bulk oriundas de soluções de colapsos na brana. Referente às branas espessas, faremos uma revisão do modelo canônico visando o estudo de sua estabilidade. Posteriormente, iremos trabalhar a estabilidade do modelo de brana taquiônica. Nesse caso, ainda não se havia veri.cado a estabilidade para o setor de .utuações escalares de maneira geral, mas apenas na aproximação de rolamento lento. Esse resultado é então obtido pela primeira vez. Segue que uma forma de veri.car a estabilidade é observar o espectro das perturbações. Podemos então fazer uso de operadores supersimétricos, que garantem que o espectro é positivo de.nido. Nosso intuito será então veri.car a estabilidade das branas taquiônicas sem qualquer aproximação. Para isso desenvolveremos um mecanismo que envolve operadores supersimétricos de maneira não trivial, sendo uma generalização da literatura pré-existente. O principal resultado obtido é que a brana taquiônica, podendo ela ser de Minkowski ou (anti-) de Siter, é estável diante perturbações escalares. / We will review braneworlds models in .ve dimensions, such as the thin and thick branes cases. In the thin branes context we will review the Shiromizu-Maeda-Sasaki formulation and then we must obtain the e¤ective Einstein equations on the brane. Starting from these equations, we will check some deviations of 4D General Relativity, driven by extra dimension. Some of direct implications will be analyzed for black holes and cosmology. With a perturbative method that provides the event horizon in the bulk, we will introduce the notion of black string in Shiromizu-Maeda-Sasaki formulation. Across of expansion method we will analyze some examples, such as two of our works and then we must .nish with an alternative method for the treatment of singularities on the bulk. Regarding the thick brane, initially we will work the canonical model and posteriorly the tachyon brane model. In the two cases we will develop the stability of models. For the tachyon brane case, the scalar sector has not been studied but only at a slow roll approxima- tion and thus our result is original. The spectra of linear perturbations allows us the study of stability. The use of supersymmetric operators assures us a positive de.ned spectrum. The main objective of this thesis is to check the tachyon brane stability without any ap- proximation. For this purpose we will construct a nontrivial mecanism via supersymmetric operators, which is a generalization of previous literature. The signi.cant result is that the Minkowski, (anti-) de Siter tachyon brane remains stable when perturbed by scalar sector.

This thesis is concerned with several problems in general relativity and low energy string theory that are pertinent to the time evolution of the gravitational field. We present a formulation of the Einstein field equations in terms of variational techniques borrowed from geometric analysis. These equations yield the evolution equations for the Cauchy problems of both general relativity and low energy string theory. We then proceed to investigate the evolutionary linear stability of Schwarzschild-like solutions in higher dimensional relativity called black strings. These objects are determined to be linearly unstable. This motivates a further stability analysis of the charged p-brane solutions of low energy string theory. We show that one can eliminate linear instabilities in p-branes for sufficiently large values of charge. We also consider the characteristic problem of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD). We compute the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of GRMHD and establish degeneracy conditions. Finally, we consider the initial value problem for axisymmetric GRMHD. We formulate the general Einstein and MHD equations under the assumption of a stationary axisymmetric spacetime without assuming the circularity condition.

<p>The purpose of this thesis is twofold and motivated by recent developments in string theory and extra dimensional models. The first objective is to describe the development and progress in the codimension-2 brane paradigm as a potential cosmological scenario. Secondly, it presents the Antide Sitter/Conformal Field Theory (AdS/CFT) conjecture, also known as holography, as a tool for calculating physical quantities in condensed matter system and goes on to model the quantum Hall effect. We first describe the initial development of treating back-reaction in codimension-2 branes systems with a scalar and gauge field. The purpose of this is to examine the low-energy effective dynamics on the brane. Furthermore, applications are then explored for D7-branes in F-theory as well as D3-branes in large extra dimensional scenarios explored as a model for the cosmological constant problem. The result of this work is that the higher and lower dimensional scenarios are consistent with each other once brane back-reaction is considered in these models. This work led to a number of future works one of which is in relation to the cosmological constant problem. While the subsequent work is beyond the scope of this thesis, we present a picture and further references for the reader. The larger, later, portion of this thesis introduces the concept of holography, its origins, and the applicability to condensed matter systems. Furthermore, we discuss the applicability in particular to the quantum Hall effect (QHE) and present a model in the holographic language that correctly reproduces some of the physics of the QHE. This includes a paper in which we introduce the model, along with demonstration of symmetry properties and conductivity calculations, as well as a paper which examines the finite size scaling behaviour of the model. As a benefit to the reader, we present a `starter edition guide' to the AdS/CFT dictionary preceding these papers for non-experts such that this thesis is self-contained. The upshot is that these avenues of work, in particular quantum Hall-ography, have been very successful in modeling physics using tools originally developed by string theory. As such, it provides support for string theory as a model and framework, as well as providing more opportunities for future predictions of physical quantities.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Auf sehr kleinen Längenskalen erlaubt die Weltflächenbeschreibung über zweidimensionale konforme Feldtheorien eine störungstheoretische Definition der String-Theorie. Viele strukturelle Eigenschaften und phänomenologische Implikationen der letzteren können mit Hilfe von D(irichlet)-Branen untersucht werden, die in der zugrunde liegenden Weltflächentheorie durch konforme Randbedingungen beschrieben werden. Etliche interessante Hintergründe für die String-Theorie erhält man über Gruppenmannigfaltigkeiten und Coset-Modelle. Neben wichtigen Beispielen wie SL(2,R), SU(2) und Gepner-Modellen, die für AdS- und Calabi-Yau-Kompaktifizierungen eine Rolle spielen, beinhalten sie außerdem weitere Beispiele wie den Nappi-Witten-Hintergrund oder den Raum T^11, die über eine asymmetrische Wirkung der Eichgruppe definiert sind und eine kosmologische Raumzeit mit Urknall- und Weltsturz-Singularitäten bzw. die Basis des Conifolds beschreiben. Die vorliegende Arbeit bietet eine umfassende, auf den exakten Methoden der konformen Feldtheorie beruhende Analyse von asymmetrischen Coset-Modellen. Wegen der heterotischen Natur der zugrundeliegenden Symmetriealgebra erlauben diese Modelle nur Randbedingungen, die einen Teil der Symmetrie brechen. Nach einer allgemeinen Erläuterung der Grundidee für die Konstruktion von symmetriebrechenden Randbedingungen richtet sich das Hauptaugenmerk auf WZNW- und asymmetrische Coset-Modelle, die das Fundament nahezu aller bekannten konformen Feldtheorien bilden. Mit Hilfe der erzielten Ergebnisse werden die Struktur sowie die Geometrie von D-Branen in den Gruppen SL(2,R) und SU(2), im Hintergrund AdS_3 x S^3, in der kosmologischen Nappi-Witten-Raumzeit und in T^pq-Räumen untersucht. Die Techniken, die in dieser Arbeit entwickelt werden, erlauben jedoch ebenso die Behandlung von Rändern und Kontaktstellen in (1+1)- oder 2-dimensionalen kritischen Systemen, die in der Festkörpertheorie oder der statistischen Physik auftreten. Insbesondere können Defektlinien beschrieben werden, die weder totale Reflexion noch völlige Transmission aufweisen. / At very small length scales, the world sheet approach in terms of two-dimensional conformal field theories provides a perturbative definition of string theory. Many structural properties and phenomenological implications of the latter can be explored using D(irichlet)-branes which may be identified with conformal boundary conditions in the underlying world sheet theory. Several interesting backgrounds in string theory arise from group manifolds and coset theories. Apart from prominent examples such as SL(2,R), SU(2) and Gepner models which play a role in AdS and Calabi-Yau compactifications, they also include further instances like the Nappi-Witten background or the space T^11 which are constructed using an asymmetric action of the gauge group and which describe a cosmological space-time with big-bang and big-crunch singularities and the base of the conifold, respectively. The present thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of asymmetric cosets based on the exact methods of boundary conformal field theory. Due to the heterotic nature of the underlying symmetry algebra, the models only allow for conformal boundary conditions which break parts of the bulk symmetry. The universal ideas for the construction of symmetry breaking boundary conditions are indicated and applied in detail to WZNW and asymmetric coset theories which provide the basic building blocks of almost all known conformal field theories. The general results are used to investigate the structure and shape of D-branes in the group manifolds SL(2,R) and SU(2), the background AdS_3 x S^3, the cosmological Nappi-Witten space-time and T^pq-spaces. The techniques developed in this thesis also allow for a treatment of boundaries and junctions in (1+1)- or 2-dimensional critical systems in condensed matter theory and statistical physics. In particular, they enable us to describe defect lines which go beyond full reflection or transmission.

Der erste Teil gibt eine kurze Einführung in die Prinzipien und neueren Entwicklungen der String Theorie. Im zweiten Teil leiten wir systematisch die fünf- und vierdimensionalen Wirkungen der heterotischen M-theorie unter Einbeziehung von Fünfbranen her. Zuerst wird die Theorie von Horava und Witten an N einzelne Fünfbranen gekoppelt und auf eine dreidimensionale Calabi-Yau Mannigfaltigkeit kompaktifiziert, wobei beliebig viele Moduli der Kähler Klasse und der komplexen Struktur zugelassen werden. Das führt zu einer fünfdimensionalen geeichten N=1 Supergravitation auf dem Orbifold S^1/Z_2, gekoppelt an vierdimensionale N=1 supersymmetrische Theorien auf N Dreibranen sowie den zwei Grenzflächen, welche an den Orbifoldfixpunkten fixiert sind. Einige Eigenschaften dieser Wirkung werden betrachtet, insbesondere die quaternionische Struktur des von den Hypermultipletskalaren parametrisierten Moduliraums und die Eichung einer Isometrie dieses Raumes. Danach wird eine BPS-Vakuumlösung bestehend aus parallelen Branen konstruiert und die zugehörige vierdimensionale effektive Wirkung hergeleitet. Dazu werden das Kählerpotential aller skalaren Modulifelder sowie die kinetischen Funktionen für die Eichfelder explizit angegeben. Ausserdem werden die vierdimensionalen Superfelder durch die zugehöhrigen fünfdimensionalen Komponentenfelder ausgedrückt. Im nächsten Teil wird die vierdimensionale Wirkung der vorangegangenen Arbeit in einer vereinfachten Form angewandt, wobei nur die geometrisch notwendigen Felder betrachtet werden, und das sind die Metrik, das Dilaton und der T-modulus. Eine einparametrige Schar von vierdimensionalen zeitabhängigen Lösungen wird gefunden und in den fünfdimensionalen Zusammenhang gestellt. Die entsprechenden approximativen fünfdimensionalen Lösungen sind eine Entwicklung zu linearer Ordnung im Kopplungsparameter epsilon, welcher Loopkorrekturen zur vierdimensionalen Theorie angibt. Diese Korrekturen sind durch Anregungen gewisser Felder in der fünften Dimension gegeben und können somit zeitabhängig sein. Es zeigt sich, dass gerade jene zwei Lösungen mit zeitunabhängigen Loopkorrekturen den bekannten exakten fünfdimensionalen separierbaren Lösungen entsprechen. Am Ende wird noch disskutiert was sich durch Einbeziehung einer beweglichen Fünfbrane ändert. Im letzten Teil werden Flopübergänge in der M-theory auf dreidimensionalen Calabi-Yau Mannigfaltigkeiten studiert, inspesondere deren Einfluss auf kosmologische Modelle der fünfdimensionalen N=1 Supergravitation. Das ist eine weitere Anwendung der Wirkung aus dem zweiten Teil dieser Arbeit, nun jedoch im etwas einfacheren Fall der puren M-theorie ohne Grenzflächen oder Fünfbranen, dafür unter Berücksichtigung spezieller Membranenzustände. Insbesondere wird die Wirkung für jene Membranenzustände hergeleitet, welche einem zusätzlichen Hypermultiplet entsprechen, das beim Flopübergang masselos wird. Das Hypermultiplet hat ein Potential mit quadratischen und kubischen Termen, welche von den Kählermoduli abhängen. Die Konstruktion expliziter zeitabhängiger Lösungen zeigt, dass eine Flopübergang dynamisch realisiert werden kann solange das zusätzliche Hypermultiplet nicht mit einbezogen wird. Anregungen dieses Hypermultiplets ändern die Situation und im allgemeinen findet der Flopübergang nicht mehr vollständig statt, statt dessen wird das System in der Übergangsregion stabilisiert. Somit können solche Regionen um Flopübergange im Kähler Moduliraum als dynamisch bevorzugt betrachtet werden. Die Verallgemeinerung dieses Szenarios auf heterotische M-theorie wird kurz disskutiert. / First a short introduction to principles and some recent developments in string theory is given. In a second part the effective action for five- as well as four-dimensional heterotic M-theory in the presence of five-branes is systematically derived from Horava-Witten theory coupled to N separate M5-brane world-volume theories. The five-dimensional theory is obtained by compactification on a Calabi-Yau three-fold, where we allow for an arbitrary number of Kähler and complex structure moduli. This leads to a five-dimensional N=1 gauged supergravity theory on the orbifold S^1/Z_2, coupled to four-dimensional N=1 theories residing on the two orbifold fixed planes and N additional three-branes. We analyze some properties of this action, including the quaternionic structure of the hypermultiplet sector and its relation to the gauged isometry. Further, the multi-domain-wall vacuum solution is given, and the associated four-dimensional effective theory is derived. In particular the Kähler potential and the gauge kinetic functions are determined along with the explicit relations between four-dimensional superfields and five-dimensional component fields. Next, a truncated form of the previously obtained four-dimensional action and its relation to the five-dimensional domain-wall vacuum state are used to study cosmological rolling-radii solutions. The four-dimensional action is reduced to the minimal geometrically necessary field content including gravity, the dilaton and the T-modulus. To this action we find a one-parameter family of time-dependent solutions and relate them to their approximate five-dimensional counterparts. These are new, generally non-separating solutions corresponding to an evolving pair of domain walls. The five-dimensional solutions are computed to leading non-trivial order in the strong coupling expansion parameter which describes loop corrections to the four-dimensional theory. These loop corrections depend on certain field excitations in the fifth dimension and thus generally vary with time. We point out that the two previously discovered exact five-dimensional separable solutions are precisely the special cases for which the loop corrections are time-independent. At the end, changes induced by the presence of a five-brane are discussed. In the last part, we study flop-transitions for pure M-theory on Calabi-Yau three-folds, in particular their influence on cosmology in the context of the effective five-dimensional N=1 supergravity theory. This is a further application of the five-dimensional action obtained earlier, but in the context of pure M-theory without five-branes, and extended to include certain two-brane states. In particular, the two-brane states that correspond to an additional hypermultiplet which becomes massless at the flop-transition is included in the effective action. We find the potential for this hypermultiplet which has quadratic and quartic terms and depends on the Kähler moduli. By constructing explicit cosmological solutions, it is shown that a flop-transition can dynamically happen, as long as the hypermultiplet is set to zero. Taking into account excitations of the hypermultiplet we find that the transition is generally not completed, that is, the system gets stabilized close to the transition region. Regions of the Kähler moduli space close to flop-transitions can therefore be viewed as dynamically preferred. The generalization of the scenario to heterotic M-theory is discussed.

In dieser Arbeit beschreibe ich verschiedene Aspekte der Kompaktifizierung der String Theorie, insbesondere auf nichttrivialen Mannigfaltigkeiten. Im ersten Teil betrachte ich K-Theorie und ihre Anwendung in der Untersuchung von D-Branen. Es handelt sich um eine verallgemeinerte Kohomologietheorie welche die möglichen Ladungen für eine gegebene Raumzeitmannigfaltigkeit klassifiziert. Eine natürliche Fragestellung ist inwiefern sich diese Beschreibung von der üblichen mit (de Rahm) Kohomologie/Homologie unterscheidet. Hierzu gebe ich eine Calabi-Yau Mannigfaltigkeit an die den Unterschied illustriert. Anstatt der Kompaktifizierung auf einer komplizierten glatten Mannigfaltigkeit kann man auch Orbifolds von einfachen Mannigfaltigkeiten studieren um interessante Kompaktifizierungen zu erhalten. Dies wird mit äquivarianter K-Theorie beschrieben. Um dies mit physikalischen vorhersagen zu vergleichen berechne ich alle KO_{Z_2}(R^{p,q}). Darueberhinaus kann man Orientifolds betrachten, diese führen auf die Definition von neuen K-Theorien. Ich beschreibe einfache Eigenschaften dieser Theorien. Im zweiten Teil präsentiere ich Kompaktifizierungen auf G_2 und Spin(7) Mannigfaltigkeiten und ihre Beschreibung als Gepner Modelle. Die SCFT und die geometrische Beschreibung unterscheiden sich, und ich gebe eine Erklärung für dieses Phänomen. / In this thesis I consider various aspects of string theory compactifications, especially for nontrivial internal manifolds. The first part is dedicated to the application of K-theory to the study of D-branes. It is the generalized cohomology theory which classifies the possible charges on a given spacetime. A natural question is whether there is any difference between K-theory and the usual description via (de Rahm) cohomology/homology. For this I present a Calabi-Yau manifold which illustrates this difference. Instead of compactifying on a complicated smooth manifold one can also consider orbifolds of simple manifolds to get interesting compactifications. These are described by equivariant K-theory. To be able to compare this with the physical prediction I calculate all KO_{Z_2}(R^{p,q}). Furthermore one can consider orientifolds, which suggests the definition of new K-theories. I investigate simple properties of these. In the second part I present compactifications on G_2 and Spin(7) manifolds and their description as Gepner models. The SCFT and the geometric description disagree. An explanation for this phenomenon is offered.

Cette thèse s'attache à comprendre le rôle du champ de fond antisymétrique B en théorie des cordes. Nouveauté essentielle et prometteuse par rapport à la théorie des champs, puisqu'il accompagne naturellement la courbure de l'espace-temps g, son importance a été soulignée ces dernières années dans différents domaines, auxquels j'ai tenté de contribuer. Le premier chapitre étudie la transformation de Seiberg-Witten, qui relie des branes ordinaires plongées dans un champ B à des branes non-commutatives. A la recherche d'une expression explicite sur le secteur de jauge, il tente d'en éclaircir la signification. Le chapitre 2 s'attaque à la dynamique non abélienne des branes M5 en M-théorie. Par différentes approches, supersymétrique ou plus géométrique, je tente d'y proposer un contenu en champs pour un paquet de N M5-branes, expliquant leur anomalie en N^3. Ces champs formeraient alors une version non-abélienne des théories de jauge à connexion tensorielle. Enfin, la présence d'un champ B autorise des variétés de compactification plus générales que les espaces de Calabi-Yau, dites variétés à structure SU(3). La symétrie-miroir peut être étendue dans ce cadre, en la décrivant comme une T-dualité le long d'une fibration toroïdale. Sa description géométrique met alors en jeu les composantes de la torsion intrinsèque, qui sont mélangées à celles de la courbure H=dB, ainsi que je le détaille dans le chapitre 3.

<p>For the first time in the history of physics we stand in front of a theory that might actually serve as a unification of it all - string theory. It provides a self-consistent framework for gravity and quantum mechanics, which naturally incorporates matter and gauge interactions of the type seen in the standard model. Unfortunately, at the moment we do not know of any principle that selects the vacuum of the theory, so predictions about our four-dimensional world are still absent. However, the introduction of extended objects opens up an intricate new arena of physics, which is non-trivial and challenging to map out, even at a basic level.</p><p>A key concept of quantum gravity is holography; this is realised in string theory by the AdS/CFT correspondence, which relates string theory to a field theory living in a lower dimensional space. In this thesis we discuss two limits of the correspondence, namely the BMN limit, giving rise to a plane wave geometry, and the tensionless limit, exhibiting massless higher spin interactions. We also study a limit of string theory in a background electric field, where the theory is described by open strings and positively wound closed strings only.</p><p>We begin with a brief review of the theory, focusing on an intuitive understanding of the basic aspects and serving as an introduction to the papers. In the first paper we calculate, from two different points of view, scattering amplitudes in the non-commutative open string limit. In the second paper we obtain the quadratic scalar field contributions to the stress-energy tensor in the minimal bosonic higher spin gauge theory in four dimensions. In the last paper we propose a way to avoid fermion doubling when discretizing the string in the BMN limit.</p>

<p>String theory has proved to be a valuable theoretical laboratory for probing gravity and gauge theory in a unified framework. In this thesis some of the exciting spin-offs of string theory such as branes and higher spin are studied. After a review of the basics of string theory the four papers of the thesis are discussed. In the first paper we support the equivalence between two descriptions of non-commutative open strings by calculating scattering amplitudes in both approaches. The second paper gives a physical interpretation of the fact that Ramond-Ramond charge in string theory on SU(2) is only defined modulo an integer. In the third paper we calculate contributions to the stress-energy tensor of higher-spin theory in four dimensional AdS space, and in the last paper of the thesis we compare the free energy of the two dimesional type 0A extremal blackhole and find agreement with the corresponding quantity in a deformed matrix model.</p>

For the first time in the history of physics we stand in front of a theory that might actually serve as a unification of it all - string theory. It provides a self-consistent framework for gravity and quantum mechanics, which naturally incorporates matter and gauge interactions of the type seen in the standard model. Unfortunately, at the moment we do not know of any principle that selects the vacuum of the theory, so predictions about our four-dimensional world are still absent. However, the introduction of extended objects opens up an intricate new arena of physics, which is non-trivial and challenging to map out, even at a basic level. A key concept of quantum gravity is holography; this is realised in string theory by the AdS/CFT correspondence, which relates string theory to a field theory living in a lower dimensional space. In this thesis we discuss two limits of the correspondence, namely the BMN limit, giving rise to a plane wave geometry, and the tensionless limit, exhibiting massless higher spin interactions. We also study a limit of string theory in a background electric field, where the theory is described by open strings and positively wound closed strings only. We begin with a brief review of the theory, focusing on an intuitive understanding of the basic aspects and serving as an introduction to the papers. In the first paper we calculate, from two different points of view, scattering amplitudes in the non-commutative open string limit. In the second paper we obtain the quadratic scalar field contributions to the stress-energy tensor in the minimal bosonic higher spin gauge theory in four dimensions. In the last paper we propose a way to avoid fermion doubling when discretizing the string in the BMN limit.