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Differential equations are powerful tools in the study of correlation functions in conformal field theories (CFTs). Carrollian amplitudes behave as correlation functions of Carrollian CFT that holographically describes asymptotically flat spacetime. We derive linear differential equations satisfied by Carrollian MHV gluon and graviton amplitudes. We obtain non-distributional solutions for both the gluon and graviton cases. We perform various consistency checks for these differential equations, including compatibility with conformal Carrollian symmetries.

Carrollian holography is supposed to describe gravity in four-dimensional asymptotically flat space-time by the three-dimensional Carrollian CFT living at null infinity. We transform superstring scattering amplitudes into the correlation functions of primary fields of Carrollian CFT depending on the three-dimensional coordinates of the celestial sphere and a retarded time coordinate. The power series in the inverse string tension is converted to a whole tower of both UV and IR finite descendants of the underlying field-theoretical Carrollian amplitude. We focus on four-point amplitudes involving gauge bosons and gravitons in type I open superstring theory and in closed heterotic superstring theory at the tree-level. We also discuss the limit of infinite retarded time coordinates, where the string world-sheet becomes celestial.

It is shown that in the presence of a nonvanishing cosmological constant, Strominger's infinite-dimensional $\mathrm{w_{1+\infty}}$ algebra of soft graviton symmetries is modified in a simple way. The deformed algebra contains a subalgebra generating $ SO(1,4)$ or $SO(2,3)$ symmetry groups of $\text{dS}_4$ or $\text{AdS}_4$, depending on the sign of the cosmological constant. The transformation properties of soft gauge symmetry currents under the deformed $\mathrm{w_{1+\infty}}$ are also discussed.

We propose a description of the gluon scattering amplitudes as the inverse Mellin transforms of the conformal correlators of light operators in two-dimensional Liouville theory tensored with WZW-like chiral currents on the celestial sphere. The dimensions of operators are Mellin dual to gluon light cone energies while their positions are determined by the gluon momentum directions. Tree-level approximation in Yang-Mills theory corresponds to the semiclassical limit of Liouville theory. By comparing subleading corrections, we find $b^2= (8\pi^2)^{-1}\beta_0 \,g^2(M)$, where $b$ is the Liouville coupling constant, $g(M)$ is the Yang Mills coupling at the renormalization scale $M$ and $\beta_0$ is the one-loop coefficient of the Yang-Mills beta function.

We discuss supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory coupled to dilatons in the framework of celestial holography. We show that in the presence of point-like dilaton sources, the CCFT operators associated with the gauge supermultiplet acquire a simple, factorized form. They factorize into the holomorphic (super)current part and the exponential "light" operators of Liouville theory, in the infinite central charge limit. The current sector exhibits (1,0) supersymmetry, thus implementing spacetime supersymmetry in CCFT.

We consider Yang-Mills theory with the coupling constant and theta angle determined by the vacuum expectation values of a dynamical (complex) dilaton field. We discuss the tree-level N-gluon MHV scattering amplitudes in the presence of a nontrivial background dilaton field and construct the corresponding celestial amplitudes by taking Mellin transforms with respect to the lightcone energies. In this way, we obtain two-dimensional CFT correlators of primary fields on the celestial sphere. We show that the celestial Yang-Mills amplitudes evaluated in the presence of a spherical dilaton shockwave are given by the correlation functions of primary field operators factorized into the holomorphic current operators times the "light" Liouville operators. They are evaluated in the semiclassical limit of Liouville theory (the limit of infinite central charge) and are determined by the classical Liouville field describing metrics on the celestial sphere.

We discuss the properties of recently constructed "single-valued" celestial four-gluon amplitudes. We show that the amplitude factorizes into the "current" part and the "scalar" part. The current factor is given by the group-dependent part of the Wess-Zumino-Witten correlator of four holomorphic currents with a non-vanishing level of Kač-Moody algebra. The scalar factor can be expressed in terms of a complex integral of the Koba-Nielsen form, similar to the integrals describing four-point correlators in Coulomb gas models and, more generally, in the infinite central charge limit of Liouville theory. The scalar part can be also obtained by a dimensional reduction of a single D=4 conformal block and the shadow block from Minkowski space to the celestial sphere.

In celestial holography, four-dimensional scattering amplitudes are considered as two-dimensional conformal correlators of a putative two-dimensional celestial conformal field theory (CCFT). The simplest way of converting momentum space amplitudes into CCFT correlators is by taking their Mellin transforms with respect to light-cone energies. For massless particles, like gluons, however, such a construction leads to three-point and four-point correlators that vanish everywhere except for a measure zero hypersurface of celestial coordinates. This is due to the four-dimensional momentum conservation law that constrains the insertion points of the operators associated with massless particles. These correlators are reminiscent of Coulomb gas correlators that, in the absence of background charges, vanish due to charge conservation. We supply the background momentum by coupling Yang-Mills theory to a background dilaton field, with the (complex) dilaton source localized on the celestial sphere. This picture emerges from the physical interpretation of the solutions of the system of differential equations discovered by Banerjee and Ghosh. We show that the solutions can be written as Mellin transforms of the amplitudes evaluated in such a dilaton background. The resultant three-gluon and four-gluon amplitudes are single-valued functions of celestial coordinates enjoying crossing symmetry and all other properties expected from standard CFT correlators. We use them to extract OPEs and compare them with the OPEs extracted from multi-gluon celestial amplitudes without a dilaton background. We perform the conformal block decomposition of the four-gluon single-valued correlator and determine the dimensions, spin and group representations of the entire primary field spectrum of the Yang-Mills sector of CCFT.

Very recently, we proposed an explanation of the discrepancy between the measured anomalous magnetic moment of the muon and the Standard Model (SM) prediction in which the dominant contribution to $(g-2)_\mu$ originates in Kaluza-Klein (KK) excitations (of the lepton gauge boson) which do not mix with quarks (to lowest order) and therefore can be quite light avoiding LHC constraints. In this addendum we reexamine the bounds on 4-fermion contact interactions from precise electroweak measurements and show that the constraints on KK masses and couplings are more severe than earlier thought. However, we demonstrate that our explanation remains plausible if a few KK modes are lighter than LEP energy, because if this were the case the contribution to the 4-fermion scattering from the internal propagator would be dominated by the energy and not by the mass. To accommodate the $(g-2)_\mu$ discrepancy we assume that the lepton number $L$ does not partake in the hypercharge and propagates in one extra dimension (transverse to the SM branes): for a mass of the lowest KK excitation of 60 GeV (lower than the LEP energy), the string scale is roughly 10 TeV while the $L$ gauge coupling is of order $\sim 10^{-1}$.

In a recent paper, here referred to as part I, we considered the celestial four-gluon amplitude with one gluon represented by the shadow transform of the corresponding primary field operator. This correlator is ill-defined because it contains branch points related to the presence of conformal blocks with complex spin. In this work, we adopt a procedure similar to minimal models and construct a single-valued completion of the shadow correlator, in the limit when the shadow is "soft." By following the approach of Dotsenko and Fateev, we obtain an integral representation of such a single-valued correlator. This allows inverting the shadow transform and constructing a single-valued celestial four-gluon amplitude. This amplitude is drastically different from the original Mellin amplitude. It is defined over the entire complex plane and has correct crossing symmetry, OPE and bootstrap properties. It agrees with all known OPEs of celestial gluon operators. The conformal block spectrum consists of primary fields with dimensions $\Delta=m+i \lambda$, with integer $m\geq 1$ and various, but always integer spin, in all group representations contained in the product of two adjoint representations.

We demonstrate that the discrepancy between the anomalous magnetic moment measured at BNL and Fermilab and the Standard Model prediction could be explained within the context of low-scale gravity and large extra-dimensions. The dominant contribution to $(g-2)_\mu$ originates in Kaluza-Klein (KK) excitations (of the lepton gauge boson) which do not mix with quarks (to lowest order) and therefore can be quite light avoiding LHC constraints. We show that the KK contribution to $(g-2)_\mu$ is universal with the string scale entering as an effective cutoff. The KK tower provides a unequivocal distinctive signal which will be within reach of the future muon smasher.

Very recently, the Muon $g-2$ experiment at Fermilab has confirmed the E821 Brookhaven result, which hinted at a deviation of the muon anomalous magnetic moment from the Standard Model (SM) expectation. The combined results from Brookhaven and Fermilab show a difference with the SM prediction $\delta a_\mu = (251 \pm 59) \times 10^{-11}$ at a significance of $4.2\sigma$, strongly indicating the presence of new physics. Motivated by this new result we reexamine the contributions to the muon anomalous magnetic moment from both: (i)~the ubiquitous $U(1)$ gauge bosons of D-brane string theory constructions and (ii)~the Regge excitations of the string. We show that, for a string scale ${\cal O} ({\rm PeV})$, the contribution from anomalous $U(1)$ gauge bosons which couple to hadrons could help to reduce (though not fully eliminate) the discrepancy reported by the Muon $g-2$ Collaboration. Consistency with null results from LHC searches of new heavy vector bosons imparts the dominant constraint. We demonstrate that the contribution from Regge excitations is strongly suppressed as it was previously conjectured. We also comment on contributions from Kaluza-Klein (KK) modes, which could help resolve the $\delta a_\mu$ discrepancy. In particular, we argue that for 4-stack intersecting D-brane models, the KK excitations of the $U(1)$ boson living on the lepton brane would not couple to hadrons and therefore can evade the LHC bounds while fully bridging the $\delta a_\mu$ gap observed at Brookhaven and Fermilab.

In celestial conformal field theory, gluons are represented by primary fields with dimensions $\Delta=1+i\lambda$, $\lambda\in\mathbb{R}$ and spin $J=\pm 1$, in the adjoint representation of the gauge group. All two- and three-point correlation functions of these fields are zero as a consequence of four-dimensional kinematic constraints. Four-point correlation functions contain delta-function singularities enforcing planarity of four-particle scattering events. We relax these constraints by taking a shadow transform of one field and perform conformal block decomposition of the corresponding correlators. We compute the conformal block coefficients. When decomposed in channels that are "compatible" in two and four dimensions, such four-point correlators contain conformal blocks of primary fields with dimensions $\Delta=2+M+i\lambda$, where $M\ge 0$ is an integer, with integer spin $J=-M,-M+2,\dots,M-2,M$. They appear in all gauge group representations obtained from a tensor product of two adjoint representations. When decomposed in incompatible channels, they also contain primary fields with continuous complex spin, but with positive integer dimensions.

We study two-dimensional celestial conformal field theory describing four-dimensional ${\cal N}=1$ supergravity/Yang-Mills systems and show that the underlying symmetry is a supersymmetric generalization of BMS symmetry. We construct fermionic conformal primary wave functions and show how they are related via supersymmetry to their bosonic partners. We use soft and collinear theorems of supersymmetric Einstein-Yang-Mills theory to derive the OPEs of the operators associated to massless particles. The bosonic and fermionic soft theorems are shown to form a sequence under supersymmetric Ward identities. In analogy with the energy momentum tensor, the supercurrents are shadow transforms of soft gravitino operators and generate an infinite-dimensional supersymmetry algebra. The algebra of $\mathfrak{sbms}_4$ generators agrees with the expectations based on earlier work on the asymptotic symmetry group of supergravity. We also show that the supertranslation operator can be written as a product of holomorphic and anti-holomorphic supercurrents.

Conformally soft gluons are conserved currents of the Celestial Conformal Field Theory (CCFT) and generate a Kac-Moody algebra. We study celestial amplitudes of Yang-Mills theory, which are Mellin transforms of gluon amplitudes and take the double soft limit of a pair of gluons. In this manner we construct the Sugawara energy-momentum tensor of the CCFT. We verify that conformally soft gauge bosons are Virasoro primaries of the CCFT under the Sugawara energy-momentum tensor. The Sugawara tensor though does not generate the correct conformal transformations for hard states. In Einstein-Yang- Mills (EYM) theory, we consider an alternative construction of the energy-momentum tensor, similar to the double copy construction which relates gauge theory amplitudes with gravity ones. This energy momentum tensor has the correct properties to generate conformal transformations for both soft and hard states. We extend this construction to supertranslations.

We elaborate on the proposal of flat holography in which four-dimensional physics is encoded in two-dimensional celestial conformal field theory (CCFT). The symmetry underlying CCFT is the extended BMS symmetry of (asymptotically) flat spacetime. We use soft and collinear theorems of Einstein-Yang-Mills theory to derive the OPEs of BMS field operators generating superrotations and supertranslations. The energy-momentum tensor, given by a shadow transform of a soft graviton operator, implements superrotations in the Virasoro subalgebra of $\mathfrak{bms_4}$. Supertranslations can be obtained from a single translation generator along the light-cone direction by commuting it with the energy-momentum tensor. This operator also originates from a soft graviton and generates a flow of conformal dimensions. All supertranslations can be assembled into a single primary conformal field operator on celestial sphere.

[Abridged] We realize the Agrawal-Obied-Vafa (AOV) swampland proposal of fading dark matter by the model of Salam-Sezgin and its string realization of Cvetic-Gibbons-Pope. The model describes a compactification of 6-dimensional supergravity with a monopole background on a 2-sphere. In 4 dimensions, there are 2 scalar fields, $X$ and $Y $, and the effective potential in the Einstein frame is an exponential with respect to $Y$ times a quadratic polynomial in the field $e^{-X}$. When making the volume of the 2-sphere large, namely for large values of $Y$, there appears a tower of states, which according to the infinite distance swampland conjecture becomes exponentially massless. If the standard model fields are confined on Neveu-Schwarz 5-branes the 6-dimensional gauge couplings are independent of the string dilaton in the string frame, and upon compactification to 4 dimensions the 4-dimensional gauge couplings depend on $X$ (rather than the dilaton $Y$) which is fixed at the minimum of the potential. This avoids direct couplings of the dilaton to matter suppressing extra forces competing with gravity. We show that this set up has the salient features of the AOV models, and ergo can potentially ameliorate the tension between local distance ladder and cosmic microwave background estimates of the Hubble constant $H_0$. Although the AOV proposal does not fully resolve the tension in $H_0$ measurements, it provides a dynamical dark energy model of cosmology that satisfies the de Sitter swampland conjecture. We comment on a viable solution to overcome the tension between low- and high-redshift observations within the AOV background and discuss the implications for the swampland program.

The basic ingredient of CCFT holography is to regard four-dimensional amplitudes describing conformal wave packets as two-dimensional conformal correlation functions of the operators associated to external particles. By construction, these operators transform as quasi-primary fields under SL(2,C) conformal symmetry group of the celestial sphere. We derive the OPE of the CCFT energy-momentum tensor with the operators representing gauge bosons and show that they transform as Virasoro primaries under diffeomorphisms of the celestial sphere.

We study tree-level celestial amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory -- Mellin transforms of multi-gluon scattering amplitudes that convert them into the correlators of conformal primary fields on two-dimensional celestial sphere. By using purely field-theoretical methods, we show that the soft conformal limit of celestial amplitudes, in which one of the primary field operators associated to gauge bosons becomes a dimension one current, is dominated by the contributions of low-energy soft particles. This result confirms conclusions reached by using Yang-Mills theory formulated in curvilinear coordinates, as pioneered by Strominger. By using well-known collinear limits of Yang-Mills amplitudes, we derive the OPE rules for the primary fields and the holomorphic currents arising in the conformally soft limit. The Ward identities following from OPE have the same form as the identities derived by using soft theorems.

Celestial amplitudes provide holographic imprints of four-dimensional scattering processes in terms of conformal correlation functions on a two-dimensional sphere describing Minkowski space at null infinity. We construct the generators of Poincare and conformal groups in the celestial representation and discuss how these symmetries are manifest in the amplitudes.

The scattering amplitudes of gauge bosons in heterotic and open superstring theories are related by the single-valued projection which yields heterotic amplitudes by selecting a subset of multiple zeta value coefficients in the $\alpha'$ (string tension parameter) expansion of open string amplitudes. In the present work, we argue that this relation holds also at the level of low-energy expansions (or individual Feynman diagrams) of the respective effective actions, by investigating the beta functions of two-dimensional sigma models describing world-sheets of open and heterotic strings. We analyze the sigma model Feynman diagrams generating identical effective action terms in both theories and show that the heterotic coefficients are given by the single-valued projection of the open ones. The single-valued projection appears as a result of summing over all radial orderings of heterotic vertices on the complex plane representing string world-sheet.

We obtain new relations between Einstein-Yang-Mills (EYM) amplitudes involving N gauge bosons plus a single graviton and pure Yang-Mills amplitudes involving N gauge bosons plus one additional vector boson inserted in a way typical for a gauge boson of a "spectator" group commuting with the group associated to original N gauge bosons. We show that such EYM amplitudes satisfy U(1) decoupling relations similar to Kleiss-Kuijf relations for Yang-Mills amplitudes. We consider a D-brane embedding of EYM amplitudes in the framework of disk amplitudes involving open and closed strings. A new set of monodromy relations is derived for mixed open-closed amplitudes with one closed string inserted on the disk world-sheet and a number of open strings at the boundary. These relations allow expressing the latter in terms of pure open string amplitudes and, in the field-theory limit, they yield the U(1) decoupling relations for EYM amplitudes.

Motivated by the recent update on LHC searches for narrow and broad resonances decaying into diphotons we reconsider the possibility that the observed peak in the invariant mass spectrum at M_\gamma \gamma = 750 GeV originates from a closed string (possibly axionic) excitation \varphi (associated with low mass scale string theory) that has a coupling with gauge kinetic terms. We reevaluate the production of \varphi by photon fusion to accommodate recent developments on additional contributions to relativistic light-light scattering. We also study the production of \varphi via gluon fusion. We show that for both a narrow and a broad resonance these two initial topologies can accommodate the excess of events, spanning a wide range of string mass scales 7 \alt M_s/TeV \alt 30 that are consistent with the experimental lower bound: M_s > 7 TeV, at 95% CL. We demonstrate that for the two production processes the LHC13 data is compatible with the lack of a diphoton excess in LHC8 data within ∼1\sigma. We also show that if the resonance production is dominated by gluon fusion the null results on dijet searches at LHC8 further constrain the coupling strengths of \varphi, but without altering the range of possible string mass scales.

We show that low-mass-scale string compactifications, with a generic D-brane configuration that realizes the standard model by open strings, can explain the relatively broad peak in the diphoton invariant mass spectrum at 750 GeV recently reported by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations. Under reasonable assumptions, we demonstrate that the excess could originate from a closed string (possibly axionic) excitation \varphi that has a coupling with gauge kinetic terms. We estimate the \varphi production rate from photon-photon fusion in elastic pp scattering, using the effective photon and narrow width approximations. For string scales above todays lower limit M_s ≈7 TeV, we can accommodate the diphoton rate observed at Run II while maintaining consistency with Run I data.

At the tree level, the scattering processes involving open and closed strings are described by a disk world-sheet with vertex operator insertions at the boundary and in the bulk. Such amplitudes can be decomposed as certain linear combinations of pure open string amplitudes. While previous relations have been established on the double cover (complex sphere) in this letter we derive them on the disk (upper complex half plane) allowing for different momenta of the left- and right-movers of the closed string. Formally, the computation of disk amplitudes involving both open and closed strings is reduced to considering the monodromies on the underlying string world-sheet.

For two massless particles i and j, the collinear limit is a special kinematic configuration in which the particles propagate with parallel four-momentum vectors, with the total momentum P distributed as p_i=xP and p_j=(1-x)P, so that s_ij=(p_i+p_j)^2=P^2=0. In Yang-Mills theory, if i and j are among N gauge bosons participating in a scattering process, it is well known that the partial amplitudes associated to the (single trace) group factors with adjacent i and j are singular in the collinear limit and factorize at the leading order into N-1-particle amplitudes times the universal, x-dependent Altarelli-Parisi factors. We give a precise definition of the collinear limit and show that at the tree level, the subleading, non-singular terms are related to the amplitudes with a single graviton inserted instead of two collinear gauge bosons. To that end, we argue that in one-graviton Einstein-Yang-Mills amplitudes, the graviton with momentum P can be replaced by a pair of collinear gauge bosons carrying arbitrary momentum fractions xP and (1-x)P.

Very recently, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations reported diboson and dijet excesses above standard model expectations in the invariant mass region of 1.8 -2.0 TeV. Interpreting the diboson excess of events in a model independent fashion suggests that the vector boson pair production searches are best described by WZ or ZZ topologies, because states decaying into W^+W^- pairs are strongly constrained by semileptonic searches. Under the assumption of a low string scale, we show that both the diboson and dijet excesses can be steered by an anomalous U(1) field with very small coupling to leptons. The Drell-Yan bounds are then readily avoided because of the leptophobic nature of the massive Z' gauge boson. The non-negligible decay into ZZ required to accommodate the data is a characteristic footprint of intersecting D-brane models, wherein the Landau-Yang theorem can be evaded by anomaly-induced operators involving a longitudinal Z. The model presented herein can be viewed purely field-theoretically, although it is particularly well motivated from string theory. Should the excesses become statistically significant at the LHC13, the associated Z\gamma topology would become a signature consistent only with a stringy origin.

We express all tree-level graviton amplitudes in Einstein's gravity as the collinear limits of a linear combination of pure Yang-Mills amplitudes in which each graviton is represented by two gauge bosons, each of them carrying exactly one half of graviton's momentum and helicity.

We show that the mixed gravitational/gauge superstring amplitudes describing decays of massless closed strings - gravitons or dilatons - into a number of gauge bosons, can be written at the tree (disk) level as linear combinations of pure open string amplitudes in which the graviton (or dilaton) is replaced by a pair of collinear gauge bosons. Each of the constituent gauge bosons carry exactly one half of the original closed string momentum, while their +/- 1 helicities add up to +/- 2 for the graviton or to 0 for the dilaton.

[Abridged] We consider extensions of the standard model based on open strings ending on D-branes. Assuming that the fundamental string mass scale M_s is in the TeV range and that the theory is weakly coupled, we discuss possible signals of string physics at the upcoming HL-LHC run (3000 fb^-1) with \sqrts = 14 TeV, and at potential future pp colliders, HE-LHC and VLHC, operating at \sqrts = 33 and 100 TeV, respectively. In such D-brane constructions, the dominant contributions to full-fledged string amplitudes for all the common QCD parton subprocesses leading to dijets and \gamma + jet are completely independent of the details of compactification, and can be evaluated in a parameter-free manner. We make use of these amplitudes evaluated near the first (n=1) and second (n=2) resonant poles to determine the discovery potential for Regge excitations of the quark, the gluon, and the color singlet living on the QCD stack. We show that for string scales as large as 7.1 TeV (6.1 TeV), lowest massive Regge excitations are open to discovery at 5\sigma in dijet (\gamma + jet) HL-LHC data. We also show that for n=1, the dijet discovery potential at HE-LHC and VLHC exceedingly improves: up to 15 TeV and 41 TeV, respectively. To compute the signal-to-noise ratio for n=2 resonances, we first carry out a complete calculation of all relevant decay widths of the second massive level string states. We demonstrate that for string scales M_s <~ 10.5 TeV (M_s <~ 28 TeV), detection of n=2 Regge recurrences at HE-LHC (VLHC) would become the smoking gun for D-brane string compactifications. Our calculations have been performed using a semi-analytic parton model approach which is cross checked against an original software package. The string event generator interfaces with HERWIG and Pythia through BlackMax. The source code is publically available in the hepforge repository.

We show that the single trace heterotic N-point tree-level gauge amplitude A_HET can be obtained from the corresponding type I amplitude A_I by the single-valued (sv) projection: A_HET=sv(A_I). This projection maps multiple zeta values to single-valued multiple zeta values. The latter represent a subclass of multiple zeta values originating from single-valued multiple polylogarithms at unity. Similar relations between open and closed string amplitudes or amplitudes of different string vacua can be established. As a consequence the alpha'-expansion of a closed string amplitude is dictated by that of the corresponding open string amplitude. The combination of single-valued projections, Kawai-Lewellen-Tye relations and Mellin correspondence reveal a unity of all tree-level open and closed superstring amplitudes together with the maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills and supergravity theories.

We explain what features of string theory can be tested at the LHC. We review the present bounds on the string mass and on extra gauge bosons as well as the prospects for the upcoming experiments.

We extend the recently established Mellin correspondence of supergravity and superstring amplitudes to the case of arbitrary helicity configurations. The amplitudes are discussed in the framework of Grassmannian varieties. We generalize Hodges' determinant to a function of two sets of independent coordinates and show that tree-level supergravity amplitudes can be obtained by contour integrations of both sets in separate Grassmannians while in superstring theory, one set of coordinates is identified with string vertex positions at the disk boundary and Mellin transformed into generalized hypergeometric functions of Mandelstam invariants.

At the tree level, the maximally helicity violating amplitudes of N gauge bosons in open superstring theory and of N gravitons in supergravity are known to have simple representations in terms of tree graphs. For superstrings, the graphs encode integral representations of certain generalized Gaussian hypergeometric functions of kinematic invariants while for supergravity, they represent specific kinematic expressions constructed from spinor-helicity variables. We establish a superstring/supergravity correspondence for this class of amplitudes, by constructing a mapping between the positions of gauge boson vertices at the disk boundary and the helicity spinors associated to gravitons. After replacing vertex positions by a larger set of N(N-3)/2 coordinates, the superstring amplitudes become (multiple) Mellin transforms of supergravity amplitudes, from the projective space into the dual Mellin space of N(N-3)/2 kinematic invariants. Similarly, inverse Mellin transforms transmute open superstrings into supergravity. We elaborate on the properties of multiple Mellin and inverse Mellin transforms in the framework of superstring/supergravity correspondence.

The latest results of the ATLAS and CMS experiments point to a preferred narrow Higgs mass range (m_h ≃124 - 126 GeV) in which the effective potential of the Standard Model (SM) develops a vacuum instability at a scale 10^9 -10^11 GeV, with the precise scale depending on the precise value of the top quark mass and the strong coupling constant. Motivated by this experimental situation, we present here a detailed investigation about the stability of the SM^++ vacuum, which is characterized by a simple extension of the SM obtained by adding to the scalar sector a complex SU(2) singlet that has the quantum numbers of the right-handed neutrino, H", and to the gauge sector an U(1) that is broken by the vacuum expectation value of H". We derive the complete set of renormalization group equations at one loop. We then pursue a numerical study of the system to determine the triviality and vacuum stability bounds, using a scan of 10^4 random set of points to fix the initial conditions. We show that, if there is no mixing in the scalar sector, the top Yukawa coupling drives the quartic Higgs coupling to negative values in the ultraviolet and, as for the SM, the effective potential develops an instability below the Planck scale. However, for a mixing angle -0.35 \alt \alpha \alt -0.02 or 0.01 \alt \alpha \alt 0.35, with the new scalar mass in the range 500 GeV \alt m_h" \alt 8 TeV, the SM^++ ground state can be absolutely stable up to the Planck scale. These results are largely independent of TeV-scale free parameters in the model: the mass of the non-anomalous U(1) gauge boson and its branching fractions.

We discuss the phenomenology and cosmology of a Standard-like Model inspired by string theory, in which the gauge fields are localized on D-branes wrapping certain compact cycles on an underlying geometry, whose intersection can give rise to chiral fermions. The energy scale associated with string physics is assumed to be near the Planck mass. To develop our program in the simplest way, we work within the construct of a minimal model with gauge-extended sector U (3)_B \times Sp (1)_L \times U (1)_I_R \times U (1)_L. The resulting U (1) content gauges the baryon number B, the lepton number L, and a third additional abelian charge I_R which acts as the third isospin component of an SU(2)_R. All mixing angles and gauge couplings are fixed by rotation of the U(1) gauge fields to a basis diagonal in hypercharge Y and in an anomaly free linear combination of I_R and B-L. The anomalous $Z'$ gauge boson obtains a string scale Stückelberg mass via a 4D version of the Green-Schwarz mechanism. To keep the realization of the Higgs mechanism minimal, we add an extra SU(2) singlet complex scalar, which acquires a VEV and gives a TeV-scale mass to the non-anomalous gauge boson Z". The model is fully predictive and can be confronted with dijet and dilepton data from LHC8 and, eventually, LHC14. We show that M_Z" ≈3 - 4 TeV saturates current limits from the CMS and ATLAS collaborations. We also show that for M_Z" \alt 5 TeV, LHC14 will reach discovery sensitivity \agt 5\sigma. After that, we demostrate in all generality that Z" milli-weak interactions could play an important role in observational cosmology. Finally, we examine some phenomenological aspects of the supersymmetric extension of the D-brane construct.

We obtain simple expressions for tree-level maximally helicity violating amplitudes of N gauge bosons from disk world-sheets of open superstrings. The amplitudes are written in terms of (N-3)! hypergeometric integrals depending on kinematic parameters, weighted by certain kinematic factors. The integrals are transcendental in a strict sense defined in this work. The respective kinematic factors can be succinctly written in terms of "dual" momentum twistors. The amplitudes are computed by using the prescription proposed by Berkovits and Maldacena.

We study higher level Regge resonances of open superstrings, focusing on the universal part of the Neveu-Schwarz sector common to all D-brane realizations of the standard model. For Regge states with masses far above the fundamental string scale, we discuss the spin-dependence of their decay rates into massless gauge bosons. Extending our previous work on lowest level string excitations, we study the second mass level at which spins range from 0 to 3. We construct the respective vertex operators and compute the amplitudes involving one massive particle and two or three gauge bosons. To illustrate the use of BCFW recursion relations in superstring theory, we build the four gluon amplitude from on-shell amplitudes involving string resonances and gauge bosons.

Massive Z'-gauge bosons act as excellent harbingers for string compactifications with a low string scale. In D-brane models they are associated to U(1) gauge symmetries that are either anomalous in four dimensions or exhibit a hidden higher dimensional anomaly. We discuss the possible signals of massive Z'-gauge bosons at hadron collider machines (Tevatron, LHC) in a minimal D-brane model consisting out of four stacks of D-branes. In this construction, there are two massive gauge bosons, which can be naturally associated with baryon number B and B-L (L being lepton number). Here baryon number is always anomalous in four dimensions, whereas the presence of a four-dimensional B-L anomaly depends on the U(1)-charges of the right handed neutrinos. In case B-L is anomaly free, a mass hierarchy between the two associated Z'-gauge bosons can be explained. In our phenomenological discussion about the possible discovery of massive Z'-gauge bosons, we take as a benchmark scenario the dijet plus W signal, recently observed by the CDF Collaboration at Tevatron. It reveals an excess in the dijet mass range 150 GeV/c^2, 4.1\sigma beyond SM expectations. We show that in the context of low-mass string theory this excess can be associated with the production and decay of a leptophobic Z', a singlet partner of SU(3) gluons coupled primarily to baryon number. Even if the CDF signal disappears, as indicated by the more recent D0 results, our analysis can still serve as the basis for future experimental search for massive Z'-gauge bosons in low string scale models. We provide the relevant cross sections for the production of Z'-gauge bosons in the TeV region, leading to predictions that are within reach of the present or the next LHC run.

The invariant mass distribution of dijets produced in association with W bosons, recently observed by the CDF Collaboration at Tevatron, reveals an excess in the dijet mass range 120-160 GeV/c^2, 3\sigma beyond Standard Model expectations. We show that such an excess is a generic feature of low mass string theory, due to the production and decay of a leptophobic Z', a singlet partner of SU(3) gluons coupled primarily to the U(1) baryon number. In this framework, U(1) and SU(3) appear as subgroups of U(3) associated with open strings ending on a stack of 3 D-branes. In addition, a minimal model contains two other stacks to accommodate the electro-weak SU(2) ∈U(2) and the hypercharge U(1). Of the three U(1) gauge bosons, the two heavy Z' and Z" receive masses through the Green-Schwarz mechanism. For a given Z' mass, the model is quite constrained. Fine tuning three of its free parameters is just sufficient to simultaneously ensure: a small Z-Z' mixing in accord with the stringent LEP data on the $Z$ mass; very small (less than 1%) branching ratio into leptons; and a large hierarchy between Z" and Z' masses. The heavier neutral gauge boson Z" is within the reach of LHC.

If the fundamental mass scale of superstring theory is as low as few TeVs, the massive modes of vibrating strings, Regge excitations, will be copiously produced at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We discuss the complementary signals of low mass superstrings at the proposed electron-positron facility (CLIC), in e^+e^- and \gamma \gamma collisions. We examine all relevant four-particle amplitudes evaluated at the center of mass energies near the mass of lightest Regge excitations and extract the corresponding pole terms. The Regge poles of all four-point amplitudes, in particular the spin content of the resonances, are completely model independent, universal properties of the entire landscape of string compactifications. We show that \gamma \gamma \to e^+ e^- scattering proceeds only through a spin-2 Regge state. We estimate that for this particular channel, string scales as high as 4 TeV can be discovered at the 11\sigma level with the first fb^-1 of data collected at a center-of-mass energy ≈5 TeV. We also show that for e^+e^- annihilation into fermion-antifermion pairs, string theory predicts the precise value, equal 1/3, of the relative weight of spin 2 and spin 1 contributions. This yields a dimuon angular distribution with a pronounced forward-backward asymmetry, which will help distinguishing between low mass strings and other beyond the standard model scenarios.

We discuss direct production of Regge excitations in the collisions of massless four-dimensional superstring states, focusing on the first excited level of open strings ending on D-branes extending into higher dimensions. We construct covariant vertex operators and identify ``universal'' Regge states with the internal parts either trivial or determined by the world-sheet SCFT describing superstrings propagating on an arbitrary Calabi-Yau manifold. We evaluate the amplitudes involving one such massive state and up to three massless ones and express them in the helicity basis. The most important phenomenological applications of our results are in the context of low-mass string (and large extra dimensions) scenarios in which excited string states are expected to be produced at the LHC as soon as the string mass threshold is reached in the center-of-mass energies of the colliding partons. In order to facilitate the use of partonic cross sections, we evaluate them and tabulate for all production processes: gluon fusion, quark absorbing a gluon, quark-antiquark annihilation and quark-quark scattering.

We consider string realizations of the Randall-Sundrum effective theory for electroweak symmetry breaking and explore the search for the lowest massive Regge excitation of the gluon and of the extra (color singlet) gauge boson inherent of D-brane constructions. In these curved backgrounds, the higher-spin Regge recurrences of Standard Model fields localized near the IR brane are warped down to close to the TeV range and hence can be produced at collider experiments. Assuming that the theory is weakly coupled, we make use of four gauge boson amplitudes evaluated near the first Regge pole to determine the discovery potential of LHC. We study the inclusive dijet mass spectrum in the central rapidity region |y_jet| < 1.0 for dijet masses M ≥2.5 TeV. We find that with an integrated luminosity of 100 fb^-1, the 5\sigma discovery reach can be as high as 4.7 TeV. Observations of resonant structures in pp →direct \gamma + jet can provide interesting corroboration for string physics up to 3.0 TeV. We also study the ratio of dijet mass spectra at small and large scattering angles. We show that with the first fb^-1 such a ratio can probe lowest-lying Regge states for masses ∼2.5 TeV.

A deformation of the N=2 topological string partition function is analyzed by considering higher dimensional F-terms of the type W^2g*Upsilon^n, where W is the chiral Weyl superfield and each Upsilon factor stands for the chiral projection of a real function of N=2 vector multiplets. These terms generate physical amplitudes involving two anti-self-dual Riemann tensors, 2g-2 anti-self-dual graviphoton field strengths and 2n self-dual field strengths from the matter vector multiplets. Their coefficients F_g,n generalizing the genus g partition function F_g,0 of the topological twisted type II theory, can be used to define a generating functional by introducing deformation parameters besides the string coupling. Choosing all matter field strengths to be that of the dual heterotic dilaton supermultiplet, one obtains two parameters that we argue should correspond to the deformation parameters of the Nekrasov partition function in the field theory limit, around the conifold singularity. Its perturbative part can be obtained from the one loop analysis on the heterotic side. This has been computed in [1] and in the field theory limit shown to be given by the radius deformation of c=1 CFT coupled to two-dimensional gravity. Quite remarkably this result reproduces the gauge theory answer up to a phase difference that may be attributed to the regularization procedure. The type II results are expected to be exact and should also capture the part that is non-perturbative in heterotic dilaton.

We consider extensions of the standard model based on open strings ending on D-branes, in which gauge bosons and their associated gauginos exist as strings attached to stacks of D-branes, and chiral matter exists as strings stretching between intersecting D-branes. Under the assumptions that the fundamental string scale is in the TeV range and the theory is weakly coupled, we study models of supersymmetry for which signals of annihilating neutralino dark matter are observable. In particular, we construct a model with a supersymmetric R-symmetry violating (but R-parity conserving) effective Lagrangian that allows for the s-wave annihilation of neutralinos, once gauginos acquire mass through an unspecified mechanism. The model yields bino-like neutralinos (with the measured relic abundance) that annihilate to a gamma-gamma final state with a substantial branching fraction (~ 10%) that is orders of magnitude larger than in the minimal supersymmetric standard model. A very bright gamma-ray spectral line could be observed by gamma-ray telescopes.

We extend the study of scattering amplitudes presented in ``The LHC String Hunter's Companion'' to the case of five-point processes that may reveal the signals of low mass strings at the LHC and are potentially useful for detailed investigations of fundamental Regge excitations. In particular, we compute the full-fledged string disk amplitudes describing all 2->3 parton scattering subprocesses leading to the production of three hadronic jets. We cast our results in a form suitable for the implementation of stringy partonic cross sections in the LHC data analysis. We discuss the universal, model-independent features of multi-parton processes and point out the existence of even stronger universality relating N-gluon amplitudes to the amplitudes involving N-2 gluons and one quark-antiquark pair. We construct a particularly simple basis of two functions describing all universal five-point amplitudes. We also discuss model-dependent amplitudes involving four fermions and one gauge boson that may be relevant for studying jets associated to Drell-Yan pairs and other processes depending on the spectrum of Kaluza-Klein particles, thus on the geometry of compact dimensions.

We consider extensions of the standard model based on open strings ending on D-branes, with gauge bosons due to strings attached to stacks of D-branes and chiral matter due to strings stretching between intersecting D-branes. Assuming that the fundamental string mass scale is in the TeV range and the theory is weakly coupled, we discuss possible signals of string physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In previous works, direct channel excitations of Regge recurrences in parton-parton scattering supplied the outstanding new signature. The present work considers the deviation from standard model expectations for the 4-fermion processes qq\to qq and qq' \to qq', in which the s-channel excitation of string resonances is absent. In this case, we find that Kaluza-Klein recurrences at masses somewhat less than the string scale generate effective 4-fermion contact terms which can significantly enhance the dijet R ratio above its QCD value of about 0.6. The simultaneous observation of a nearby resonant structure in the dijet mass spectrum would provide a "smoking gun" for TeV scale string theory. In this work, we also show that (1) for M_string<3.5 TeV, the rates for various topologies arising from the pp \to Z^0 + jet channel could deviate significantly from standard model predictions and (2) that the sizeable cross sections for Regge recurrences can allow a 6\sigma discovery for string scales as large as 3 TeV after about 1 year of LHC operation at \sqrts =10 TeV and ∫L dt ~ 100 pb^-1.

We consider extensions of the standard model based on open strings ending on D-branes, with gauge bosons due to strings attached to stacks of D-branes and chiral matter due to strings stretching between intersecting D-branes. Assuming that the fundamental string mass scale is in the TeV range and the theory is weakly coupled, we discuss possible signals of string physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In such D-brane constructions, the dominant contributions to full-fledged string amplitudes for all the common QCD parton subprocesses leading to dijets are completely independent of the details of compactification, and can be evaluated in a parameter-free manner. We make use of these amplitudes evaluated near the first resonant pole to determine the discovery potential of LHC for the first Regge excitations of the quark and gluon. Remarkably, the reach of LHC after a few years of running can be as high as 6.8 TeV. Even after the first 100 pb^-1 of integrated luminosity, string scales as high as 4.0 TeV can be discovered. For string scales as high as 5.0 TeV, observations of resonant structures in pp \to \rm direct \gamma + jet can provide interesting corroboration for string physics at the TeV-scale.

The mass scale of fundamental strings can be as low as few TeV/c^2 provided that spacetime extends into large extra dimensions. We discuss the phenomenological aspects of weakly coupled low mass string theory related to experimental searches for physics beyond the Standard Model at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We consider the extensions of the Standard Model based on open strings ending on D-branes, with gauge bosons due to strings attached to stacks of D-branes and chiral matter due to strings stretching between intersecting D-branes. We focus on the model-independent, universal features of low mass string theory. We compute, collect and tabulate the full-fledged string amplitudes describing all 2->2 parton scattering subprocesses at the leading order of string perturbation theory. We cast our results in a form suitable for the implementation of stringy partonic cross sections in the LHC data analysis. The amplitudes involving four gluons as well as those with two gluons plus two quarks do not depend on the compactification details and are completely model-independent. They exhibit resonant behavior at the parton center of mass energies equal to the masses of Regge resonances. The existence of these resonances is the primary signal of string physics and should be easy to detect. On the other hand, the four-fermion processes like quark-antiquark scattering include also the exchanges of heavy Kaluza-Klein and winding states, whose details depend on the form of internal geometry. They could be used as ``precision tests'' in order to distinguish between various compactification scenarios.

With the advent of the LHC there is widespread interest in the discovery potential for physics beyond the standard model. In TeV-scale open string theory, the new physics can be manifest in the excitation and decay of new resonant structures, corresponding to Regge recurrences of standard model particles. An essential input for the prediction of invariant mass spectra of the decay products (which could serve to identify the resonance as a string excitation) are the partial and total widths of the decay products. We present a parameter-free calculation of these widths for the first Regge recurrence of the SU(3) gluon octet, of the U(1) gauge boson which accompanies gluons in D-brane constructions, and of the quark triplet.

The LHC program will include the identification of events with single prompt high-k_\perp photons as probes of new physics. We show that this channel is uniquely suited to search for experimental evidence of TeV-scale open string theory. At the parton level, we analyze single photon production in gluon fusion, gg \to \gamma g, with open string states propagating in intermediate channels. If the photon mixes with the gauge boson of the baryon number, which is a common feature of D-brane quivers, the amplitude appears already at the string disk level. It is completely determined by the mixing parameter (which is actually determined in the minimal theory) -- and it is otherwise model-(compactification-) independent. We discuss the string signal cross sections as well as the QCD background. The present analysis takes into account the recently obtained decay widths of first Regge recurrences, which are necessary for more precise determination of these cross sections in the resonant region. A vital part of the background discussion concerns the minimization of misidentified \pi^0's emerging from high-p_\perp jets. We show that even for relatively small mixing, 100 fb^-1 of LHC data could probe deviations from standard model physics associated with TeV-scale strings at a 5\sigma significance, for M_\rm string as large as 2.3 TeV. It is also likely that resonant bumps could be observed with approximately the same signal-to-noise ratio.

The mass scale M_s of superstring theory is an arbitrary parameter that can be as low as few TeVs if the Universe contains large extra dimensions. We propose a search for the effects of Regge excitations of fundamental strings at LHC, in the process p p \to \gamma jet. The underlying parton process is dominantly the single photon production in gluon fusion, g g \to \gamma g, with open string states propagating in intermediate channels. If the photon mixes with the gauge boson of the baryon number, which is a common feature of D-brane quivers, the amplitude appears already at the string disk level. It is completely determined by the mixing parameter -- and it is otherwise model-(compactification-) independent. Even for relatively small mixing, 100 fb^-1 of LHC data could probe deviations from standard model physics, at a 5\sigma significance, for M_s as large as 3.3 TeV.

We evaluate all next-to-maximal helicity violating (NMHV) six-gluon amplitudes in type I open superstring theory in four dimensions, at the disk level, to all orders in alpha'. Although the computation utilizes supersymmetric Ward identities, the result holds for all compactifications, even for those that break supersymmetry and is completely model-independent. Together with the maximally helicity violating (MHV) amplitudes presented in the previous work, our results provide the complete six-gluon disk amplitude.

We discuss supersymmetric Ward identities relating various scattering amplitudes in type I open superstring theory. We show that at the disk level, the form of such relations remains exactly the same, to all orders in alpha', as in the low-energy effective field theory describing the alpha'-> 0 limit. This result holds in D=4 for all compactifications, even for those that break supersymmetry. We apply SUSY relations to the computations of N-gluon MHV superstring amplitudes, simplifying the existing results for N<7 and deriving a compact expression for N=7.

We consider quantum field theory in four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime, with the position coordinates represented by twistors instead of the usual world-vectors. Upon imposing canonical commutation relations between twistors and dual twistors, quantum theory of fields described by non-holomorphic functions of twistor variables becomes manifestly non-commutative, with Lorentz symmetry broken by a time-like vector. We discuss the free field propagation and its impact on the short- and long-distance behavior of physical amplitudes in perturbation theory. In the ultraviolet limit, quantum field theories in twistor space are generically less divergent than their commutative counterparts. Furthermore, there is no infrared--ultraviolet mixing problem.

In this contribution to the Festschrift celebrating Gabriele Veneziano on his 65th birthday, I discuss the threshold effects of extra dimensions and their applications to physics beyond the standard model, focusing on superstring theory.

We discuss the amplitudes describing N-gluon scattering in type I superstring theory, on a disk world-sheet. After reviewing the general structure of amplitudes and the complications created by the presence of a large number of vertices at the boundary, we focus on the most promising case of maximally helicity violating (MHV) configurations because in this case, the zero Regge slope limit (alpha' -> 0) is particularly simple. We obtain the full-fledged MHV disk amplitudes for N=4,5 and N=6 gluons, expressed in terms of one, two and six functions of kinematic invariants, respectively. These functions represent certain boundary integrals - generalized Euler integrals - which for N>= 6 correspond to multiple hypergeometric series (generalized Kampe de Feriet functions). Their alpha'-expansions lead to Euler-Zagier sums. For arbitrary N, we show that the leading string corrections to the Yang-Mills amplitude, of order O(alpha'^2), originate from the well-known alpha'^2 Tr F^4 effective interactions of four gauge field strength tensors. By using iteration based on the soft gluon limit, we derive a simple formula valid to that order for arbitrary N. We argue that such a procedure can be extended to all orders in alpha'. If nature gracefully picked a sufficiently low string mass scale, our results would be important for studying string effects in multi-jet production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

We consider scattering processes involving N gluonic massless states of open superstrings with certain Regge slope alpha'. At the semi-classical level, the string world-sheet sweeps a disk and N gluons are created or annihilated at the boundary. We present exact expressions for the corresponding amplitudes, valid to all orders in alpha', for the so-called maximally helicity violating configurations, with N=4, 5 and N=6. We also obtain the leading O(alpha'^2) string corrections to the zero-slope N-gluon Yang-Mills amplitudes.

SUSY breaking and its mediation are among the most important problems of supersymmetric generalizations of the standard model. The idea of gravity-mediated SUSY breaking, proposed in 1982 by Arnowitt, Chamseddine and Nath, and independently by Barbieri, Ferrara and Savoy, fits naturally into superstring theory, where it can be realized at both classical as well as quantum levels. This talk is dedicated to Pran Nath on his 65th birthday.

We discuss the mediation of supersymmetry breaking from closed to open strings, extending and improving previous analysis of the authors in Nucl. Phys. B 695 (2004) 103 [hep-th/0403293]. In the general case, we find the absence of anomaly mediation around any perturbative string vacuum. When supersymmetry is broken by Scherk-Schwarz boundary conditions along a compactification interval perpendicular to a stack of D-branes, the gaugino acquires a mass at two loops that behaves as $m_{1/2}\sim g^4 m_{3/2}^3$ in string units, where $m_{3/2}$ is the gravitino mass and $g$ is the gauge coupling.

We discuss the moduli-dependent couplings of the higher derivative F-terms $(\Tr W^2)^{h-1}$, where $W$ is the gauge N=1 chiral superfield. They are determined by the genus zero topological partition function $F^{(0,h)}$, on a world-sheet with $h$ boundaries. By string duality, these terms are also related to heterotic topological amplitudes studied in the past, with the topological twist applied only in the left-moving supersymmetric sector of the internal $N=(2,0)$ superconformal field theory. The holomorphic anomaly of these couplings relates them to terms of the form $\Pi^n({\rm Tr}W^2)^{h-2}$, where $\Pi$'s represent chiral projections of non-holomorphic functions of chiral superfields. An important property of these couplings is that they violate R-symmetry for $h\ge 3$. As a result, once supersymmetry is broken by D-term expectation values, $(\Tr W^2)^2$ generates gaugino masses that can be hierarchically smaller than the scalar masses, behaving as $m_{1/2}\sim m_0^4$ in string units. Similarly, $\Pi{\rm Tr}W^2$ generates Dirac masses for non-chiral brane fermions, of the same order of magnitude. This mechanism can be used for instance to obtain fermion masses at the TeV scale for scalar masses as high as $m_0\sim{\cal O}(10^{13})$ GeV. We present explicit examples in toroidal string compactifications with intersecting D-branes.

We develop a formalism for computing one-loop gravitational corrections to the effective action of D-branes. In particular, we study bulk to brane mediation of supersymmetry breaking in models where supersymmetry is broken at the tree-level in the closed string sector (bulk) by Scherk-Schwarz boundary conditions, while it is realized on a collection of D-branes in a linear or non-linear way. We compute the gravitational corrections to the fermion masses $m_{1/2}$ (gauginos or goldstino) induced from the exchange of closed strings, which are non-vanishing for world-sheets with Euler characteristic -1 (``genus 3/2'') due to a string diagram with one handle and one hole. We show that the corrections have a topological origin and that in general, for a small gravitino mass, the induced mass behaves as $m_{1/2}\propto g^4 m_{3/2}$, with $g$ the gauge coupling. In generic orbifold compactifications however, this leading term vanishes as a consequence of cancellations caused by discrete symmetries, and the remainder is exponentially suppressed by a factor of $\exp(-1/\alpha'm^2_{3/2})$.

We consider Type IIB orientifold models on Calabi-Yau spaces with three-form G-flux turned on. These fluxes freeze some of the complex structure moduli and the complex dilaton via an F-term scalar potential. By introducing pairs of D9-anti-D9 branes with abelian magnetic fluxes it is possible to freeze also some of the Kaehler moduli via a D-term potential. Moreover, such magnetic fluxes in general lead to chiral fermions, which make them interesting for string model-building. These issues are demonstrated in a simple toy model based on a Z_2 x Z_2' orbifold.

We go beyond parameterizations of soft terms in superstring models and investigate the dynamical assumptions that lead to the relative strength of the dilaton \it vs the moduli contributions in the soft breaking. Specifically, we discuss in some simple heterotic orbifold models sufficient conditions to achieve dilaton dominance. Assuming self-dual points to be minima we find multiple solutions to the trilinear and bilinear soft parameters $A_0$ and $B_0$. We discuss the constraints on $\mu$ and $\tan\beta$ in superstring models in the context of radiative breaking of the electroweak symmetry. We show that string models prefer a small to a moderate value of $\tan\beta$, \it i.e. $\tan\beta \leq 10$, and a value much larger than this requires a high degree of fine tuning. Further, we show that for large $\tan\beta$ the radiative electroweak symmetry breaking constraint leads to a value $\alpha_{string}=g_{string}^2/4\pi$ which is typically an order of magnitude smaller than implied by the LEP data and the heterotic superstring relation $g_{string}=k_ig_i$, where $g_i$ is the gauge coupling constant for the gauge group $G_i$ and $k_i$ is the corresponding Kac-Moody level in the class of models considered. This situation can be overcome by another fine tuned cancellation between the dilaton and the moduli contributions in the soft parameters.

Type I - heterotic duality in D=10 predicts various relations and constraints on higher order F^n couplings at different string loop levels on both sides. We prove the vanishing of two-loop corrections to the heterotic F^4 terms, which is one of the basic predictions from this duality. Furthermore, we show that the heterotic F^5 and (CP even) F^6 couplings are not renormalized at one loop. These results strengthen the conjecture that in D=10 any Tr F^(2n) coupling appears only at the disc tree-level on type I side and at (n-1)-loop level on the heterotic side. Our non-renormalization theorems are valid in any heterotic string vacuum with sixteen supercharges.

We study the two-loop F^6 interactions in SO(32) heterotic superstring theory in D=10. By using the generalized Riemann identity we are able to determine the single-trace part of the effective action up to a few constants which are related to certain scattering amplitudes. This two-loop heterotic result is related by duality to Type I interactions at the tree level. However, it turns out to be completely different from any sort of non-Abelian generalization of Born-Infeld theory. We offer an explanation of this discrepancy.

We consider a sigma model formulation of open string theory with boundary fermions carrying Chan-Paton charges at the string ends. This formalism is particularly suitable for studying world-volume potentials on D-branes. We perform explicit two-loop sigma model computations of the potential T-dual to the non-abelian Born-Infeld action. We also discuss the world-volume couplings of NS fluxes which are responsible for Myers' dielectric effect.

We discuss Poincare three-brane solutions in D=5 M-Theory compactifications on Calabi-Yau (CY) threefolds with G-fluxes. We show that the vector moduli freeze at an attractor point. In the case with background flux only, the spacetime geometry contains a zero volume singularity with the three-brane and the CY space shrinking simultaneously to a point. This problem can be avoided by including explicit three-brane sources. We consider two cases in detail: a single brane and, when the transverse dimension is compactified on a circle, a pair of branes with opposite tensions.