Related papers: Tensionless Strings and the Weak Gravity Conjectur…
Noncompact groups, similar to those that appeared in various supergravity theories in the 1970's, have been turning up in recent studies of string theory. First it was discovered that moduli spaces of toroidal compactification are given by…
We propose a supergravity model that contains elements recently shown to arise in the strongly-coupled limit of the $E_8\times E_8$ heterotic string (M-theory), including a no-scale--like K\"ahler potential, the identification of the string…
Topologically massive gravity (TMG) in three dimensions provides an interesting toy model for constructing a quantum theory of gravity. Although it can be thought of as standing as a theory in its own right, it is also of interest to see…
Recently, a new framework for solving the hierarchy problem has been proposed which does not rely on low energy supersymmetry or technicolor. The gravitational and gauge interactions unite at the electroweak scale, and the observed weakness…
Three-dimensional Einstein gravity coupled to zero, one and two forms is solved in terms of a polyhomogeneous asymptotic expansion, generalising stationary black string solutions. From first order terms we obtain, in closed form, a new…
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…
We propose new constraints for 6d (1, 0) supergravity theories based on consistency conditions on the Kahler moduli spaces of their 5d reductions. The requirement that both the metric and the BPS string tensions in the Kahler moduli space…
We study some conditions for the hierarchy $m_{3/2} << M_P$ to occur naturally in a generic effective supergravity theory. Absence of fine-tuning and perturbative calculability require that the effective potential has a sliding gravitino…
In this paper we continue to study a class of four-dimensional gravity models with n Abelian vector fields and Sp(2n)/U(n) coset of scalar fields. This class contains General Relativity (n=0) and Einstein-Maxwell dilaton-axion theory (n=1),…
We study global anomalies of discrete gauge symmetries in six-dimensional supergravities and their realizations in F-theory. We explicitly construct a discrete Green-Schwarz mechanism that depends on the choice of a coupling constant and on…
Unimodular Gravity is a theory displaying Weyl rescalings of the metric and transverse (volume-preserving) diffeomorphisms as gauge symmetries, as opposed to the full set of diffeomorphisms displayed by General Relativity. Recently, we…
We discuss the singularities in the moduli space of string compactifications to six dimensions with $N=1$ supersymmetry. Such singularities arise from either massless particles or non-critical tensionless strings. The points with…
The tensionless limit probes the very high energy regime of string theory in contrast to the well studied point-particle limit which reduces to Einstein gravity. Tensionless strings sweep out null worldsheets in the target space and hence…
We study towers of light particles that appear in infinite-distance limits of moduli spaces of 9-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=1$ string theories, some of which notably feature decompactification limits with running string coupling. The lightest…
The Weak Gravity Conjecture has recently been re-formulated in terms of a particle with non-negative self-binding energy. Because of the dual conformal field theory (CFT) formulation in the anti-de Sitter space the conformal dimension…
The landscape of possible four-dimensional low-energy effective theories arising from compactifications of string/M-theory seems vast. This might lead one to believe that any consistent-looking effective field theory coupled to gravity can…
We unveil a remarkable interplay between rigid field theories (RFTs), charge-to-mass ratios $\gamma$ and scalar curvature divergences $\mathsf{R}_{\rm div}$ in the vector multiplet moduli space of 4d ${\cal N}=2$ supergravities, obtained…
We describe a class of 4d N=1 compactifications of the $SO(32)$ heterotic/type I string theory which are destabilized by nonperturbatively generated superpotentials. In the type I description, the destabilizing superpotential is generated…
This Ph.D. thesis investigates effective field and string theories in which supersymmetry is realized and broken in various ways. Chapter 1 addresses effective theories with nonlinearly realized supersymmetry, constructed using the…
This thesis investigates the role of the quantum gravity cut-off for effective field theories (EFTs) coupled to Einstein gravity, with an emphasis on its implications at low energies within the context of the Swampland program. Part I…