String Theory seminar - Marjorie Schillo Seminar

I will review the mechanism of brane-flux annihilation in which D-brane charge in a flux background can dissolve and discharge Ramond-Ramond flux. A dynamical brane mediates the brane-flux annihilation as it moves across a compact internal cycle. This mechanism has recently been extended such that many units of flux can be discharged in a "flux cascade." The flux cascade can be used to reduce vacuum energy and give rise to 60 efolds of inflation.