We propose a variant of the KKLT (A)dS flux vacuum construction which does not require an antibrane to source the volume modulus. The strategy is to find nonzero local minima of the no-scale potential in the complex structure and dilaton directions in moduli space. The corresponding no-scale potential expanded about this point sources the volume modulus in the same way as does the antibrane of the KKLT construction. We exhibit explicit examples of such nonzero local minima of the no-scale potential in a simple toroidal orientifold model.

We argue that closed string tachyons drive two spacetime topology changing transitions -loss of genus in a Riemann surface and separation of a Riemann surface into two components. The tachyons of interest are localized versions of Scherk-Schwarz winding string tachyons arising on Riemann surfaces in regions of moduli space where string-scale tubes develop. Spacetime and world-sheet renormalization group analyses provide strong evidence that the decay of these tachyons removes a portion of the spacetime, splitting the tube into two pieces. We address the fate of the gauge fields and charges lost in the process, generalize it to situations with weak flux backgrounds, and use this process to study the type 0 tachyon, providing further evidence that its decay drives the theory sub-critical.Finally, we discuss the time-dependent dynamics of this topology-changing transition and find that it can occur more efficiently than analogous transitions on extended supersymmetric moduli spaces, which are limited by moduli trapping. January, 2004

We construct a large new class of de Sitter (and anti de Sitter) vacua of critical string theory from flux compactifications on products of Riemann surfaces. In the construction, the leading effects stabilizing the moduli are perturbative. We show that these effects self-consistently dominate over standard estimates for further α ′ and quantum corrections, via tuning available from large flux and brane quantum numbers.