Lessons from the landscape of six-dimensional supergravity theories

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2012.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Park, Daniel Sung-Joon
Other Authors: Washington Taylor.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77073
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author Park, Daniel Sung-Joon
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Park, Daniel Sung-Joon
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description Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2012.
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spelling mit-1721.1/770732019-04-10T19:43:50Z Lessons from the landscape of six-dimensional supergravity theories Park, Daniel Sung-Joon Washington Taylor. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics. Physics. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2012. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-232). Comparing the set of supergravity theories allowed by low-energy consistency conditions with the set of string vacua provides useful insights into quantum gravity and string theory. In fact, such a "landscape analysis" for ten-dimensional supergravity theories was at the core of the exciting series of developments that is now referred to as the first superstring revolution. In this thesis, we discuss the lessons we learn about quantum supergravity and string theory by carrying out such an analysis for the space of six-dimensional supergravity theories with minimal supersymmetry. We first review six-dimensional supergravity theories and explain why the space of these theories is an ideal place to carry out the landscape analysis. We then describe how anomaly constraints bound the space of consistent theories, i.e., we map the space of theories T that satisfy known low-energy consistency conditions. We then go on to describe string constructions that give six-dimensional string vacua with minimal supersymmetry, i.e., we map the space of theories S c T that come from string vacua. Finally, we compare the space of theories T and S and explore its implications. We first find that there is a large discrepancy between T and S. Among the set T - S, we identify some theories that are potentially new string vacua, but also identify many theories that cannot be embedded in any known string vacua. These theories may potentially be ruled out by yet undiscovered low energy constraints. Understanding these theories is an important step in addressing the question of string universality in six dimensions. We also find some surprising equalities that hold for Calabi-Yau threefolds that follow from demanding that F-theory string vacua should be consistent. by Daniel Sung-Joon Park. Ph.D. 2013-02-14T19:16:09Z 2013-02-14T19:16:09Z 2012 2012 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77073 825050764 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 232 p. application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Physics.
Park, Daniel Sung-Joon
Lessons from the landscape of six-dimensional supergravity theories
title Lessons from the landscape of six-dimensional supergravity theories
title_full Lessons from the landscape of six-dimensional supergravity theories
title_fullStr Lessons from the landscape of six-dimensional supergravity theories
title_full_unstemmed Lessons from the landscape of six-dimensional supergravity theories
title_short Lessons from the landscape of six-dimensional supergravity theories
title_sort lessons from the landscape of six dimensional supergravity theories
topic Physics.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77073
work_keys_str_mv AT parkdanielsungjoon lessonsfromthelandscapeofsixdimensionalsupergravitytheories