Related papers: The Weak Gravity Conjecture and Scalar Fields
In effective supergravity theories following from the superstring, a modulus field can quite naturally set the neccessary initial conditions for successful cosmological inflation to be driven by a hidden sector scalar field. The leading…
In this work we introduce the rescaled $\mathcal{R}^2$-corrected minimally coupled scalar field theory, a theory that contains minimal quantum corrections of the single scalar field Lagrangian. We develop the theoretical framework in the…
Both particle physics and the 1890s Seeliger-Neumann modification of Newtonian gravity suggest considering a "mass term" for gravity, yielding a finite range due to an exponentially decaying Yukawa potential. Unlike Nordstr\"{o}m's…
We consider the shift of charge-to-mass ratio for extremal black holes in the context of effective field theory, motivated by the Weak Gravity Conjecture. We constrain extremality corrections in different regimes subject to unitarity and…
The weak gravity conjecture imposes severe constraints on natural inflation. A trans-Planckian axion decay constant can only be realized if the potential exhibits an additional (subdominant) modulation with sub-Planckian periodicity. The…
In Kaluza-Klein (KK) compactification of gravitational theories, moduli fields, which are scalar fields associated to the deformations of the compact manifold, are typically lighter than the KK gravitons. However, a universal limit on their…
Connections between weak gravity conjecture (WGC) bounds and scattering positivity have been extensively studied over the past decade. This work further explores these connections by proposing positivity as a potential amplitude criterion…
We show that as a result of non-linear self-interactions, scalar field theories that couple to matter much more strongly than gravity are not only viable but could well be detected by a number of future experiments, provided these are…
We argue that the finiteness of quantum gravity amplitudes in fully compactified theories (at least in supersymmetric cases) leads to a bottom-up prediction for the existence of non-trivial dualities. In particular, finiteness requires the…
We investigate swampland conjectures for quantum gravity in the context of M-theory compactified on Calabi-Yau threefolds which admit infinite sequences of flops. Naively, the moduli space of such compactifications contains paths of…
Modified gravity theories capable of genuine self-acceleration typically invoke a galileon scalar which mediates a long range force, but is screened by the Vainshtein mechanism on small scales. In such theories, non-relativistic stars carry…
We consider higher-dimensional massive Brans-Dicke theory with Ricci-flat internal space. The background model is perturbed by a massive gravitating source which is pressureless in the external (our space) but has an arbitrary…
We show that, as a result of non-linear self-interactions, it is feasible, at least in light of the bounds coming from terrestrial tests of gravity, measurements of the Casimir force and those constraints imposed by the physics of compact…
Under carefully chosen assumptions a single general relativistic scalar field is able to induce MOND-like dynamics in the weak field approximation of the Einstein frame (gauge) and to modify the light cone structure accordingly. This is…
We study implications of the weak gravity conjecture in the AdS/CFT correspondence. Unlike in Minkowski spacetime, AdS spacetime has a physical length scale, so that the conjecture must be generalized with an additional parameter. We…
In theories with moduli, extremal black holes behave such that for generic initial conditions, the distance traveled by the scalars from infinity to the horizon can grow with the size of the black hole. This, in turn, implies that larger…
We present a formulation of gravity in terms of a theory based on complex SU(2) gauge fields with a general coordinate invariant action functional quadratic in the field strength. Self-duality or anti-self-duality of the field strength…
We make a number of conjectures about the geometry of continuous moduli parameterizing the string landscape. In particular we conjecture that such moduli are always given by expectation value of scalar fields and that moduli spaces with…
Ultra-light scalar fields may explain the nature of the dark matter in our universe. If such scalars couple quadratically to particles of the Standard Model the scalar acquires an effective mass which depends on the local matter energy…
Gravitational wave observations can provide unprecedented insight into the fundamental nature of gravity and allow for novel tests of modifications to General Relativity. One proposed modification suggests that gravity may undergo a phase…