Related papers: Theta-problem and the String Swampland
We provide a conceptual assessment of some aspects of fundamental quantum field theories of gravity in light of foundational aspects of the swampland program. On the one hand, asymptotically safe quantum gravity may provide a simple and…
The suggestion that there exist causally disconnected universes or sub-universes to explain the values of physical parameters such as the cosmological constant is discussed. A statistical model of the string landscape/topography is…
Recent developments in string theory have reinforced the notion that the space of stable supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric string vacua fills out a ``landscape'' whose features are largely unknown. It is then hoped that progress in…
We consider quintessence models within 4D effective descriptions of gravity coupled to two scalar fields. These theories are known to give rise to viable models of late-time cosmic acceleration without any need for flat potentials, and so…
The entanglement entropy of a free quantum field in a coherent state is independent of its stress energy content. We use this result to highlight the fact that while the Einstein equations for first order variations about a locally…
The space of 6D supergravities with minimal supersymmetry is greatly constrained by anomaly cancellation. Nevertheless, a large number of models satisfy all low-energy consistency conditions and in this work we make progress towards…
In supersymmetric models with the run-away vacua or with the stable but non-supersymmetric ground state there exist stable field configurations (vacua) which restore one half of supersymmetry and are characterized by constant positive…
It has been speculated in the literature that the effective actions of string theories at any order of $\alpha'$ should be invariant under the Buscher rules plus their higher covariant derivative corrections. This may be used as a…
In this paper we make further refinements to the duality proposed between N=1 SQCD and certain string (supergravity plus branes) backgrounds, working in the regime of comparable large number of colors and flavors. Using the string theory…
We compute $\tau_{RR}$ minimization in gauged supergravity for M-theory and String Theory truncations with both massless and massive vector multiplets. We explicitly compute, as anticipated in \cite{Amariti:2015ybz}, that massive vector…
The Hamiltonian reduction of classical SU(2) Yang-Mills field theory to the equivalent unconstrained theory of gauge invariant local dynamical variables is generalized to the case of nonvanishing theta angle. It is shown that for any theta…
Superstrata are smooth horizonless microstate geometries for the supersymmetric D1-D5-P black hole in type IIB supergravity. In the CFT, 'superstratum states' are defined to be the component of the supergraviton gas that is obtained by…
Working in the geometric approach, we construct the lagrangians of N=1 and N=2 pure supergravity in four dimensions with negative cosmological constant, in the presence of a non trivial boundary of space-time. We find that the supersymmetry…
We suggest a solution to the strong CP problem in which there are no axions involved. The superselection rule of the \theta-vacua is dynamically lifted in such a way that an infinite number of vacua are accumulated within the…
We investigate the space of consistent tree-level extensions of the maximal supergravities in ten dimensions. We parametrize theory space by the first few EFT coefficients and by the on-shell coupling of the lightest massive state, and…
Gravity duals for little string theories --- which give rise to four-dimensional theories that undergo permanent confinement in the infrared --- have not been studied in great detail. We address this question in the framework of heterotic…
It is widely believed and in part established that exact global symmetries are inconsistent with quantum gravity. One then expects that approximate global symmetries can be quantitatively constrained by quantum gravity or swampland…
We introduce an $N=1$ supergravity model based on the gauged shift symmetry of a single chiral multiplet, which can be identified with the string dilaton or a compactification modulus. The model allows for a tunably small and positive value…
Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity with non-vanishing cosmological constant coupled to Liouville theory is considered as a non-critical string on $d$ dimensional flat spacetime. It is discussed how the presence of cosmological constant yields…
In this article we review four-dimensional string vacua with N=2 space-time supersymmetry. In particular, we will discuss several aspects of the string-string duality between the heterotic string, compactified on $K3\times T^2$, and the…