Related papers: Theta-problem and the String Swampland
The principles of quantum field theory in flat spacetime suggest that gravity is mediated by a massless particle with helicity $\pm2$, the so-called graviton. It is regarded as textbook knowledge that, when the self-coupling of a particle…
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…
Generalized global symmetries are a common feature of many quantum field theories decoupled from gravity. By contrast, in quantum gravity / the Swampland program, it is widely expected that all global symmetries are either gauged or broken,…
Swampland conjectures are a set of proposed necessary conditions for a low-energy effective field theory to have a UV completion inside a theory of quantum gravity. Swampland conjectures have interesting phenomenological consequences, and…
We construct the general four-dimensional N=2 supergravity theory coupled to vector and vector-tensor multiplets only. Consistency of the construction requires the introduction of the vector fields dual to those sitting in the same…
There are many theories of quantum gravity, depending on asymptotic boundary conditions, and the amount of supersymmetry. The cosmological constant is one of the fundamental parameters that characterize different theories. If it is…
There are effective field theories that cannot be embedded in any UV complete theory. We consider scalar effective field theories, with and without dynamical gravity, in $D$-dimensional anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime with large radius and…
Based on the assumption that the target space duality ($T\to 1/T$) is preserved even nonperturbatively, the properties of static string vacua are studied. A discussion of the effective four-dimensional supergravity action based on…
A discussion of the number of degrees of freedom, and their dynamical properties, in higher derivative gravitational theories is presented. The complete non-linear sigma model for these degrees of freedom is exhibited using the method of…
The self-consistent matter coupling is found in a broad class of minimally modified gravity theories which was discovered recently. All constraints in the theories remain first class and thus a graviton has only 2 local degrees of freedom.…
In the context of 4d effective gravity theories with 8 supersymmetries, we propose to unify, strenghten, and refine the several swampland conjectures into a single statement: the structural criterion, modelled on the structure theorem in…
The distance conjecture diagnoses viable low-energy effective realisation of consistent theories of quantum gravity by examining their breakdown at infinite distance in their parameter space. At the same time, infinite distance points in…
The scenario of the slow-roll inflation is studied in the frame of the scalar-tensor theory of gravity where the scalar field has a non-minimal coupling to the geometric part. After deriving the main dynamical and perturbation equations,…
We present a consistency condition for 8d ${\cal N} = 1$ supergravity theories with non-trivial global structure $G/Z$ for the non-Abelian gauge group, based on an anomaly involving the $Z$ 1-form center symmetry. The interplay with other…
We conjecture and present evidence that any effective field theory coupled to gravity in flat space admits at most a finite number of fine tunings, depending on the amount of supersymmetry and spacetime dimension. In particular, this means…
We investigate the consequences of combining swampland conjectures with the requirement of asymptotic safety. To this end, we explore the infrared regime of asymptotically safe gravity in the quadratic one-loop approximation, and we…
Nonperturbative treatments of the UV limit of pure gravity suggest that it admits a stable fixed point with positive Newton's constant and cosmological constant. We prove that this result is stable under the addition of a scalar field with…
In no--scale supergravity global symmetries protect local supersymmetry and a zero value for the cosmological constant. We consider the breakdown of these symmetries and present a minimal SUGRA model motivated by the multiple point…
We argue that the cosmological constant is exponentially suppressed in a candidate ground state of loop quantum gravity as a nonperturbative effect of a holographic Fermi-liquid theory living on a two-dimensional spacetime. Ashtekar…
The highly non-trivial structure of the $\theta$--vacuum encodes many of the fundamental properties of gauge theories. In particular, the response of the vacuum to the $\theta$--term perturbation is sensitive to the existence of…