Cosmological Phases of the String Thermal Effective Potential

Abstract

In a superstring framework, the free energy density, F, can be determined unambiguously at the full string level once supersymmetry is spontaneously broken via geometrical fluxes. We show explicitly that only the moduli associated to the supersymmetry breaking may give relevant contributions. All other spectator moduli μ_I give exponentially suppressed contributions for relatively small (as compared to the string scale) temperature, T, and supersymmetry breaking scale, M. More concisely, for μ_I > T and M, F takes the form F(T,M; μ_I)=F(T,M)+O[exp(- {μ_I\over T}), exp(- {μ_I\over M})] We study the cosmological regime where T and M are below the Hagedorn temperature scale T_H. In this regime, F remains finite for any values of the spectator moduli μ_I. We investigate extensively the case of one spectator modulus μ_d corresponding to R_d, the radius-modulus field of an internal compactified dimension. We show that its thermal effective potential admits five phases, each of which can be described by a distinct but different effective field theory. For late cosmological times, the Universe is attracted to a "Radiation-like evolution" with M(t) ~ T(t)~ 1/a(t)~ t^{-2/d}. The spectator modulus μ(t) is stabilized either to the stringy enhanced symmetry point where R_d=1, or fixed at an arbitrary constant μ_0>T,M. For arbitrary boundary conditions at some initial time, t_E, μ(t) may pass through more than one effective field theory phase before its final attraction.

60 pages, 1 figure