Related papers: Tensionless Strings and the Weak Gravity Conjectur…
We present a bottom-up argument showing that the number of massless fields in six-dimensional quantum gravitational theories with eight supercharges is uniformly bounded. Specifically, we show that the number of tensor multiplets is bounded…
The proposal that a strong coupling limit of the five-dimensional type II string theory (M-theory compactified on a 6-torus) in which the Planck length becomes infinite could give a six-dimensional superconformal phase of M-theory is…
Supergravity theories in more than four dimensions with grand unified gauge symmetries are an important intermediate step towards the ultraviolet completion of the Standard Model in string theory. Using toric geometry, we classify and…
Ultralight scalar dark matter may couple to the Standard Model through dimension-five operators that contain the field-strength tensors of the gauge interactions. Recent progress in nuclear clocks is projected to increase the sensitivity to…
The Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) posits that gravity must be the weakest force in any consistent theory of quantum gravity. Originally formulated to constrain the landscape of effective field theories arising from string theory, the WGC…
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 study the phenomenological implications of effective supergravities based on string vacua with spontaneously broken N=1 supersymmetry by dilaton and moduli $F$-terms. We further require Minimal String Unification, namely that large…
In this thesis, two aspects of string theory are discussed, tensionless strings and supersymmetric sigma models. The equivalent to a massless particle in string theory is a tensionless string. Even almost 30 years after it was first…
In this work, we aim to characterize the structure of higher-derivative corrections within low-energy Effective Field Theories (EFTs) arising from a UV-complete theory of quantum gravity. To this end, we use string theory as a laboratory…
Axions with broken discrete shift symmetry (axion monodromy) have recently played a central role both in the discussion of inflation and the `relaxion' approach to the hierarchy problem. We suggest a very minimalist way to constrain such…
The Asymptotic WGC has been proposed as a special case of the tower WGC that probes infinite distances in the moduli space corresponding to weakly coupled gauge regimes. The conjecture has been studied in M-theory on Calabi-Yau threefold…
We revisit the four-dimensional theory of gravity that arises from string theory with higher-derivative corrections. By compactifying and truncating the ten-dimensional effective action of heterotic string theory at first order in…
The duality map between gauge theories and strings suggests that when the gauge theory is in the weak coupling regime the dual string tension effectively tends to zero, $\alpha' \to \infty$. This observation of Sundborg and Witten initiates…
Based on well-known properties of semi-classical black holes, we show that weakly-coupled string theory can be viewed as a theory of N = 1/g_s^2 particle species. This statement is a string theoretic realization of the fact that the…
We propose a generalisation of the Weak Gravity Conjecture in the presence of scalar fields. The proposal is guided by properties of extremal black holes in ${\cal N}=2$ supergravity, but can be understood more generally in terms of…
We combine old and new quantum field theoretic arguments to show that any theory of stable or metastable higher spin particles can be coupled to gravity only when the gravity sector has a stringy structure. Metastable higher spin particles,…
We show that the existence of semiclassical black holes of size as small as a minimal length scale $l_{UV}$ implies a bound on a gravitational analogue of 't-Hooft's coupling $\lambda_G(l)\equiv N(l) G_N/l^2$ at all scales $l \ge l_{UV}$.…
F-theory compactifications on elliptically fibered Calabi--Yau threefolds yield consistent six-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=(1,0)$ supergravity theories, for which the cancellation of gravitational, gauge and mixed anomalies imposes non-trivial…
We calculate the generating functions of BPS indices using their modular properties in Type II and M-theory compactifications on compact genus one fibered CY 3-folds with singular fibers and additional rational sections or just…
The confinement of electromagnetic field is studied in axial symmetrical, warped, 6D World Brane, using a recently proposed topological abelian string vortex solution as background. It was found, that the massless gauge field fluctuations…