English

Open problems on classical de Sitter solutions

High Energy Physics - Theory 2019-07-24 v3 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Differential Geometry

Abstract

Classical 10d string backgrounds with a 4d de Sitter space-time, D-brane and orientifold sources, are commonly believed to satisfy the following: 1. There is no classical de Sitter solution with parallel sources. 2. Classical de Sitter solutions with intersecting sources are unstable. 3. Classical de Sitter solutions cannot have at the same time a large internal volume, a small string coupling, a bounded number of orientifolds and quantized fluxes. These three conjectures are of particular relevance to the swampland program, and if true, they challenge the connection of string theory to cosmology. We restrict here to a standard solution ansatz for which the problem is well-defined, and we still fail to prove analytically any of these conjectures. While developing new tools and obtaining new constraints, we identify remaining corners of parameter space where counter-examples to these conjectures could be found.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1902.10093,
  title  = {Open problems on classical de Sitter solutions},
  author = {David Andriot},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1902.10093},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

v2: more results on conjecture 2, clarifications on conjecture 3; v3: minor changes, published version

R2 v1 2026-06-23T07:52:03.369Z