We review in detail a number of approaches that have been adopted to try and explain the remarkable observation of our accelerating universe. In particular we discuss the arguments for and recent progress made towards understanding the nature of dark energy. We review the observational evidence for the current accelerated expansion of the universe and present a number of dark energy models in addition to the conventional cosmological constant, paying particular attention to scalar field models such as quintessence, K-essence, tachyon, phantom and dilatonic models. The importance of cosmological scaling solutions is emphasized when studying the dynamical system of scalar fields including coupled dark energy. We study the evolution of cosmological perturbations allowing us to confront them with the observation of the Cosmic Microwave Background and Large Scale Structure and demonstrate how it is possible in principle to reconstruct the equation of state of dark energy by also using Supernovae Ia observational data. We also discuss in detail the nature of tracking solutions in cosmology, particle physics and braneworld models of dark energy, the nature of possible future singularities, the effect of higher order curvature terms to avoid a Big Rip singularity, and approaches to modifying gravity which leads to a late-time accelerated expansion without recourse to a new form of dark energy.

Dynamics of dark energy

We investigate the embedding of brane inflation into stable compactifications of string theory. At first sight a warped compactification geometry seems to produce a naturally flat inflaton potential, evading one well known difficulty of brane?antibrane scenarios. Careful consideration of the closed string moduli reveals a further obstacle: superpotential stabilization of the compactification volume typically modifies the inflaton potential and renders it too steep for inflation. We discuss the non-generic conditions under which this problem does not arise. We conclude that brane inflation models can only work if restrictive assumptions about the method of volume stabilization, the warping of the internal space, and the source of inflationary energy are satisfied. We argue that this may not be a real problem, given the large range of available fluxes and background geometries in string theory.

Towards inflation in string theory

It is shown that classical decay of unstable D-branes in bosonic and superstring theories produces pressureless gas with non-zero energy density. The energy density is stored in the open string fields, even though around the minimum of the tachyon potential there are no open string degrees of freedom. We also give a description of this phenomenon in an effective field theory.

Tachyon Matter

Quintom Cosmology: theoretical implications and observations

In this review we describe our current understanding of the properties of open string tachyons on an unstable D-brane or brane–antibrane system in string theory. The various string theoretic methods used for this study include techniques of two-dimensional conformal field theory, open string field theory, boundary string field theory, noncommutative solitons, etc. We also describe various attempts to understand these results using field theoretic methods. These field theory models include toy models like singular potential models and p-adic string theory, as well as more realistic version of the tachyon effective action based on Dirac–Born–Infeld type action. Finally we study closed string background produced by the "decaying" unstable D-branes, both in the critical string theory and in the two-dimensional string theory, and describe the open string completeness conjecture that emerges out of this study. According to this conjecture the quantum dynamics of an unstable D-brane system is described by an int...

Tachyon Dynamics in Open String Theory

We employ T-duality to restrict the tachyon dependence of effective actions for non-BPS D-branes. For the Born-Infeld part the criteria of T-duality and supersymmetry are satisfied by a simple extension of the D-brane Born-Infeld action.

T-duality and Actions for Non-BPS D-branes

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T-duality and actions for non-BPS D-branes

We construct matter-coupled N = 2 supergravity in five dimensions, using the superconformal approach. For the matter sector we take an arbitrary number of vector, tensor and hypermultiplets. By allowing off-diagonal vector-tensor couplings we find more general results than currently known in the literature. Our results provide the appropriate starting point for a systematic search for BPS solutions, and for applications of M-theory compactifications on Calabi-Yau manifolds with fluxes.

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N=2 supergravity in five dimensions revisited

We construct the Weyl multiplets of N = 2 conformal supergravity in five dimensions. We show that there exist two different versions of the Weyl multiplet, which contain the same gauge fields but differ in the matter field content: the Standard Weyl multiplet and the Dilaton Weyl multiplet. At the linearized level we obtain the transformation rules for the Dilaton Weyl multiplet by coupling it to the multiplet of currents corresponding to an on-shell vector multiplet. We construct the full non-linear transformation rules for both multiplets by gauging the D = 5 superconformal algebra F-2(4). We show that the Dilaton Weyl multiplet can also be obtained by solving the equations of motion for an improved vector multiplet coupled to the Standard Weyl multiplet.

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Weyl multiplets of N=2 conformal supergravity in five dimensions

We construct five different two-parameter massive deformations of the unique nine-dimensional N=2 supergravity. All of these deformations have a higher-dimensional origin via Scherk-Schwarz reduction and correspond to gauged supergravities. The gauge groups we encounter are SO(2), SO(1,1)^+, R, R^+ and the two-dimensional non-Abelian Lie group A(1), which consists of scalings and translations in one dimension. 
We make a systematic search for half-supersymmetric domain walls and non-supersymmetric de Sitter space solutions. Furthermore, we discuss in which sense the supergravities we have constructed can be considered as low-energy limits of compactified superstring theory.

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T. C. de Wit

Papers

T-duality and Actions for Non-BPS D-branes

T-duality and actions for non-BPS D-branes

N=2 supergravity in five dimensions revisited

Weyl multiplets of N=2 conformal supergravity in five dimensions

(Non-)Abelian Gauged Supergravities in Nine Dimensions