This research group focuses on cosmological and other phenomenological properties of string theory, a unified theory of all fundamental interactions and particles that also encompasses a quantum theory of gravity. The extreme energy scales in the early universe make cosmology a particularly interesting starting point for comparing the predictions of string theory with measurable variables. A particularly important role in this context is played by the extra space dimensions predicted by string theory, which could, for example via the induced moduli scalar fields, also have measureable consequences at much lower energies (see also QUEST Task Group “Variations of Fundamental Constants”). Another interesting area of string cosmology concerns the possible imprint of inflation or cosmic strings on the gravitational wave background.

C. Caviezel, T. Wrase, and M. Zagermann
Moduli Stabilization and Cosmology ofTypeIIB on SU(2)-Structure Orientifolds
JHEP 1004, 011 (2010)

T. Wrase and M. Zagermann
On Classical de Sitter Vacua in String Theory
Proceedings CORFU 2009, Fortschr. d. Physik 58, 906-910 (2010)