Related papers: Bubbles of Nothing in Flux Compactifications
We construct instanton solutions describing the decay of flux compactifications of a $6d$ gauge theory by generalizing the Kaluza-Klein bubble of nothing. The surface of the bubble is described by a smooth magnetically charged solitonic…
Theories with compact extra dimensions are sometimes unstable to decay into a bubble of nothing -- an instability resulting in the destruction of spacetime. We investigate the existence of these bubbles in theories where the moduli fields…
A bubble of nothing is a spacetime instability where a compact dimension collapses. After nucleation, it expands at the speed of light, leaving "nothing" behind. We argue that the topological and dynamical mechanisms which could protect a…
Within the framework of flux compactifications, we construct an instanton describing the quantum creation of an open universe from nothing. The solution has many features in common with the smooth 6d bubble of nothing solutions discussed…
Bubbles of nothing are a class of vacuum decay processes present in some theories with compactified extra dimensions. We investigate the existence and properties of bubbles of nothing in models where the scalar pseudomoduli controlling the…
In this contribution we review the ideas and results presented in the articles arXiv:2002.01764 and arXiv:2110.08276 where the decay of AdS vacua into bubbles of nothing is studied. We firstly consider AdS vacua in General Relativity with a…
We consider type IIB flux compactifications on six-dimensional SU(2)-structure manifolds with O5- and O7-planes. These six-dimensional spaces allow not only for F_3 and H_3 fluxes but also for F_1 and F_5 fluxes. We derive the…
We investigate a simple extra-dimensional model and its four-dimensional vacua. This model has a two-form flux and a positive cosmological constant, and the extra dimensions are compactified as the product of $N$ two-spheres. The theory is…
We construct a generalization of Witten's Kaluza-Klein instanton, where a higher-dimensional sphere (rather than a circle as in Witten's instanton) collapses to zero size and the geometry terminates at a bubble of nothing, in a low energy…
Theories with compact extra dimensions can exhibit a vacuum instability known as a bubble of nothing. These decay modes can be obstructed if the internal manifold is stabilized by fluxes, or if it carries Wilson lines for background gauge…
I present analytic time symmetric initial data for five dimensions describing ``bubbles of nothing'' which are asymptotically flat in the higher dimensional sense, i.e. there is no Kaluza-Klein circle asymptotically. The mass and size of…
We investigate the non-perturbative stability of supersymmetric compactifications with respect to decay via a bubble of nothing. We show examples where this kind of instability is not prohibited by the spin structure, i.e., periodicity of…
We study the dynamics of the size of an extra-dimensional manifold stabilised by fluxes. Inspecting the potential for the 4D field associated with this size (the radion), we obtain the conditions under which it can be stabilised and show…
Almost all proposals to construct de Sitter vacua with a small cosmological constant involve flux compactifications with stabilized moduli. These give AdS vacua, which are uplifted to de Sitter by adding antibranes in certain regions of the…
Fluxes are widely used to stabilise extra dimensions, but if they arise within a non-abelian gauge sector they are often unstable. We seek the fate of this instability, focussing on the simplest examples: sphere-monopole compactifications…
Kaluza-Klein compactifications with four-dimensional inflationary geometry combine the attractive idea of higher dimensional models with the attempt to incorporate four-dimensional early-time or late-time cosmology. We analyze the mass…
We found a new branch of solutions in Freund-Rubin type flux compactifications. The geometry of these solutions is described as the external space which has a de Sitter symmetry and the internal space which is topologically spherical.…
We show that D-dimensional de Sitter space is unstable to the nucleation of non-singular geometries containing spacetime regions with different numbers of macroscopic dimensions, leading to a dynamical mechanism of compactification. These…
We construct an instanton describing the pair production of non-Kaluza Klein bubbles of nothing in higher odd dimensional de Sitter spaces. In addition to showing that higher dimensional de Sitter spaces have a nonzero probability to become…
The rate and manner of vacuum decay are calculated in an explicit flux compactification, including all thick-wall and gravitational effects. For landscapes built of many units of a single flux, the fastest decay is usually to discharge just…