English

AdS scale separation and the distance conjecture

High Energy Physics - Theory 2023-05-24 v2

Abstract

It has been argued that orientifold vacua with fluxes in type IIA string theory can achieve moduli stabilisation and arbitrary decoupling between the AdS and KK scales upon sending certain unconstrained RR-flux quanta to infinity. In this paper, we find a novel scalar field in the open-string sector that allows us to interpolate between such IIA vacua that differ in flux quanta and find that the limit of large fluxes is nicely consistent with the distance conjecture. This shows that the massive IIA vacua pass an important Swampland criterion and suggests that scale-separated AdS vacua might not be in the Swampland. Our analysis also naturally suggests a flux analogue of "Reid's fantasy" where flux vacua that differ in quantised flux numbers can be connected through trajectories in open-string field space and not just via singular domain walls.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2212.06169,
  title  = {AdS scale separation and the distance conjecture},
  author = {Gary Shiu and Flavio Tonioni and Vincent Van Hemelryck and Thomas Van Riet},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2212.06169},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

19 pages + appendices, 4 figures; v2: minor edits, JHEP version

R2 v1 2026-06-28T07:31:39.240Z