Related papers: Small Steps and Giant Leaps in the Landscape
It is believed that gravity will be explained in the framework of the existing quantum theory when one succeeds in eliminating divergencies at large momenta or small distances (although the phenomenon of gravity has been observed only at…
As a spacetime with compact spatial sections, de Sitter spacetime does not have a de Sitter-invariant ground state for a minimally-coupled massless scalar field that gives definite expectation values for any observables not invariant under…
We construct a theory of fields living on continuous geometries with fractional Hausdorff and spectral dimensions, focussing on a flat background analogous to Minkowski spacetime. After reviewing the properties of fractional spaces with…
We analyze the dynamics of a Taub cosmological model in the presence of a massless minimally coupled scalar field and a cosmological constant, in the limit when both the Universe volume and the scalar field live in a quasi-classical…
We consider the question of asymptotic observables in cosmology. We assume that string theory contains a landscape of vacua, and that metastable de Sitter regions can decay to zero cosmological constant by bubble nucleation. The asymptotic…
It is shown how metastable de Sitter vacua might arise from heterotic M-theory. The balancing of its two non-perturbative effects, open membrane instantons against gaugino condensation on the hidden boundary, which act with opposing forces…
Superstring flux compactifications can stabilize all moduli while leading to an enormous number of vacua solutions, each leading to different $4-d$ laws of physics. While the string landscape provides at present the only plausible…
One of the main goals of the field of string phenomenology is to describe the properties of our spacetime in low-energy effective models related to and consistent with string theory. It is known that our universe undergoes accelerated…
Although cosmic expansion at very small distances is usually dismissed as entirely inconsequential, it appears that these extraordinarily small effects may in fact have a real and significant influence on our world. Calculations suggest…
We revisit the issue of uplifting the potential to de Sitter (dS) vacua in type IIB flux compactifications of Kachru, Kallosh, Linde and Trivedi (KKLT). We shed light on some tension between two constraints on dS vacua in type IIB string…
We show that there exists an exponentially large discretuum of vacua in $G_2$-compactifications of M-theory without flux. In M-theory-inspired $G_2$-MSSM, quantities relevant for particle physics remain virtually insensitive to large…
We analyze a simple extension of the Schwinger model, which we refer to as the $p$-Schwinger model, on a de Sitter background. In this theory, the charged massless fermions carry non-unit integer charge $p$. In Minkowski space, the…
We study infinite-distance limits in the moduli space of perturbative string vacua. The remarkable interplay of string dualities seems to determine a highly non-trivial dichotomy, summarized by the emergent string conjecture, by which in…
A novel, interesting class of scalar-tensor gravity theories is those with a limit on the field motion, where the scalar field either goes to a constant acceleration or stops accelerating and goes to a constant velocity. We combine these…
Recently a swampland criterion has been proposed that rules out de Sitter vacua in string theory. Such a criterion should hold at all points in the field space and especially at points where the system is on-shell. However there has not…
The Euclidean or Bunch-Davies O(4,1) invariant 'vacuum' state of quantum fields in global de Sitter space is shown to be unstable to small perturbations, even for a massive free field with no self-interactions. There are perturbations of…
The appearance of a convex dip in the microcanonical entropy of finite systems usually signals a first order transition. However, a convex dip also shows up in some systems with a continuous transition as for example in the Baxter-Wu model…
We study some aspects of fine tuning in inflationary scenarios within string theory flux compactifications and, in particular, in models of accidental inflation. We investigate the possibility that the apparent fine-tuning of the low energy…
The main consequences of de Sitter Special Relativity to the Standard Cosmological Model of Physical Cosmology are examined. The cosmological constant Lambda appears, in this theory, as a manifestation of the proper conformal current, which…
Granular systems confined in vertically vibrated shallow horizontal boxes (quasi two-dimensional geometry) present a liquid to solid phase transition when the frequency of the periodic forcing is increased. An effective model, where grains…