Related papers: Linking Light Scalar Modes with A Small Positive C…
This paper is concerned with string cosmology and the dynamics of multiple scalar fields in potentials that can become negative, and their features as (Early) Dark Energy models. Our point of departure is the "String Axiverse", a scenario…
The properties of the effective scalar potential are studied in the framework of type IIB string theory, taking into account perturbative and non-perturbative corrections. The former modify the K\"ahler potential and include $\alpha'$ and…
In this paper we extend the Cosmological Constant Seesaw treatment of hep-th/0602112 to String/M-Theory where the cosmological constant is finite. We discuss how transitions between different $\lambda$, one of Planckian vacuum energy, can…
We argue that theories with multiple axions generically contain a large number of vacua that can account for the smallness of the cosmological constant. In a theory with N axions, the dominant instantons with charges Q determine the…
We investigate some cosmological consequences of a vector-tensor theory where an Abelian symmetry in the vector sector is slightly broken by a mass term and by ghost-free derivative self-interactions. When studying cosmological expansion in…
It has been notoriously difficult to construct a meta-stable de Sitter (dS) vacuum in string theory in a controlled approximation. This suggests the possibility that meta-stable dS belongs to the swampland. In this paper, we propose a…
We show that a unique, most probable and stable solution for the wavefunction of the universe, with a very small cosmological constant $\Lambda_1 \simeq (\frac{\pi}{l_p N})^2$, can be predicted from the supersymmetric minisuperspace with…
In order for string theory to be made compatible with the low-energy observations of a positive cosmological constant, there have been attempts to construct dS vacua in string theory which are particularly difficult to realize. Instead of…
In String Gas Cosmology, the simplest shape modulus fields are naturally stabilized by taking into account the presence of string winding and momentum modes. We determine the resulting effective potential for these fields and show that it…
We outline the construction of metastable de Sitter vacua of type IIB string theory. Our starting point is highly warped IIB compactifications with nontrivial NS and RR three-form fluxes. By incorporating known corrections to the…
In string theory the coupling ``constants'' appearing in the low-energy effective Lagrangian are determined by the vacuum expectation values of some (a priori) massless scalar fields (dilaton, moduli). This naturally leads one to expect a…
We observe that the standard homogeneous cosmologies, those of Minkowski, de Sitter, and anti-de Sitter, which form the matrix for the Robertson--Walker scale factor, live naturally as isolated points inside a larger family of conformally…
The present cosmological model and the surveys favor the universe with a small but positive cosmological constant $\Lambda$, which accounts for dark energy and causes an exponential expansion. This can have observational consequences in the…
String theory has no parameter except the string scale $M_S$, so the Planck scale $M_\text{Pl}$, the supersymmetry-breaking scale, the EW scale $m_\text{EW}$ as well as the vacuum energy density (cosmological constant) $\Lambda$ are to be…
The decay constant of the QCD axion is required by observation to be small compared to the Planck scale. In theories of "natural inflation," and certain proposed anthropic solutions of the cosmological constant problem, it would be…
It has recently been shown that a Hagedorn phase of string gas cosmology can provide a causal mechanism for generating a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of scalar metric fluctuations, without the need for an intervening period of de Sitter…
Disorder on the string theory landscape may significantly affect dynamics of eternal inflation leading to the possibility for some vacua on the landscape to become dynamically preferable over others. We systematically study effects of a…
We study closed string axions in type IIB orientifold compactifications. We show that for natural values of the background fluxes the moduli stabilisation mechanism of the LARGE Volume Scenario (LVS) gives rise to an axiverse characterised…
We find de Sitter and flat space solutions with all moduli stabilized in four dimensional supergravity theories derived from the heterotic and type II string theories, and explain how all the previously known obstacles to finding such…
Recent developments in string compactifications demonstrate obstructions to the simplest constructions of low energy cosmologies with positive vacuum energy. The existence of obstacles to creating scale-separated de Sitter solutions…