Ph. D. Thesis: Cosmoparticle Physics and String Theory

by Stefan Sjörs (SU Fysikum)

Wednesday 2 May 2012, 09:00 → 13:00 Europe/Stockholm

FA32

This thesis deals with phenomenological and theoretical aspects of cosmoparticle physics and string theory. There are many open questions in these topics. In connection with cosmology we would like to understand the detailed properties of dark matter, dark energy, generation of primordial perturbations, etc., and in connection with particle physics we would like to understand the detailed properties of models that stabilize the electroweak scale, for instance supersymmetry. At the same time, we also need to understand these issues in a coherent theoretical framework. Such a framework is offered by string theory. In this thesis, I analyze the interplay between Higgs and dark matter physics in an effective field theory extension of the minimally supersymmetric standard model. I study a theory of modified gravity, where the graviton has acquired a mass, and show the explicit implementation of the Vainshtein mechanism, which allows one to put severe constraints on the graviton mass. I address the question of Planck scale corrections to inflation in string theory, and show how such corrections can be tamed. I study perturbations of warped throat regions of IIB string theory compactifications and classify allowed boundary conditions. Using this analysis, I determine the potential felt by an anti-D3-brane in such compactifications, using the explicit harmonic data on the conifold. I also address questions of perturbative quantum corrections in string theory and calculate one-loop corrections to the moduli space metric of Calabi-Yau orientifolds.