English

de Sitter Bubbles and the Swampland

High Energy Physics - Theory 2021-05-25 v3 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

A number of Swampland conjectures and in particular the Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture (TCC) suggest that de Sitter space is highly unstable if it exists at all. In this paper we construct effective theories of scalars rolling on potentials which are dual to a chain of short-lived dS spaces decaying from one to the next through a cascade of non-perturbative nucleation of bubbles. We find constraints on the effective potential resulting from various swampland criteria, including TCC, Weak Gravity Conjecture and Distance Conjecture. Surprisingly we find that TCC essentially incorporates all the other ones, and leads to a subclass of possible dual effective potentials. These results marginally rule out emergence of eternal inflation in the dual effective theory. We discuss some cosmological implications of our observations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2008.07555,
  title  = {de Sitter Bubbles and the Swampland},
  author = {Alek Bedroya and Miguel Montero and Cumrun Vafa and Irene Valenzuela},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2008.07555},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

21 pages + appendices, 7 figures. v2: References added v3: References corrected

R2 v1 2026-06-23T17:55:08.257Z