Related papers: A Spin-2 Conjecture on the Swampland
Using the correspondence between gauge theories and string theory in curved backgrounds, we investigate aspects of the large $N$ limit of non-commutative gauge theories by considering gravity solutions with $B$ fields. We argue that the…
In General Relativity (GR), the graviton is massless. However, a common feature in several theoretical alternatives of GR is a non-zero mass for the graviton. These theories can be described as massive gravity theories. Despite many…
Recently it has been conjectured that string theory does not allow for dS vacua or dS extrema. To scrutinize such a conjecture, it is important to study concrete string theory compactifications and spell out their assumptions and potential…
The 2-parameter family of massive variants of Einstein's gravity (on a Minkowski background) found by Ogievetsky and Polubarinov by excluding lower spins can also be derived using universal coupling. A Dirac-Bergmann constrained dynamics…
We prove a version of the Weak Gravity Conjecture for 6d F-theory or heterotic string compactifications with 8 supercharges. This sharpens our previous analysis by including massless scalar fields. The latter are known to modify the Weak…
Strong (sublattice or tower) formulations of the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) imply that, if a weakly coupled gauge theory exists, a tower of charged particles drives the theory to strong coupling at an ultraviolet scale well below the…
The existence of a new ultraviolet scale $\Lambda=g M_P$ for effective theories with gravity and U(1) gauge fields has recently been conjectured as a possible criterion for distinguishing parts of the swampland from the string landscape.…
Dimensional reduction of generalized gravity theories or string theories generically yields dilaton fields in the lower-dimensional effective theory. Thus at the level of D=4 theories, and cosmology many models contain more than just one…
We consider the swampland distance and de Sitter conjectures, of respective order one parameters $\lambda$ and $c$. Inspired by the recent Trans-Planckian Censorship conjecture (TCC), we propose a generalization of the distance conjecture,…
We formulate a series of conjectures relating the geometry of conformal manifolds to the spectrum of local operators in conformal field theories in $d>2$ spacetime dimensions. We focus on conformal manifolds with limiting points at infinite…
Among relativistic theories of gravitation the closest ones to general relativity are the scalar-tensor ones and these with Lagrangians being any function f(R) of the curvature scalar. A complete chart of relationships between these…
We propose a candidate Compton amplitude which is valid for any (integer) quantum spin and free from any spurious poles. We consider the cases of electromagnetism and gravity. We obtain such amplitudes by calculating the corresponding ones…
This talk surveys a broad range of applications of quantum field theory, as well as some recent developments. The stress is on the notion of effective field theories. Topics include implications of neutrino mass and a possible small value…
We consider the gravitational correction to the running of gauge coupling. Weak gravity conjecture implies that the gauge theories break down when the gravitational correction becomes greater than the contribution from gauge theories. This…
We point out that the swampland conjectures, forbidding the presence of global symmetries and (meta-)stable de Sitter vacua within quantum gravity, pick up a dynamical axion for the electroweak SU(2) gauge theory as a natural candidate for…
The strong coupling limit of a quantum system is in general quite complicated, but in some cases a great simplification occurs: the strongly coupled limit is equivalent to the weakly coupled limit of some other system. In string theory…
The construction of effective field theories describing M-theory compactified on $S^1/{\bf Z}_2$ is revisited, and new insights into the parameters of the theory are explained. Particularly, the web of constraints which follow from…
We consider a procedure for directly constructing general tree-level four-particle scattering amplitudes of massive spinning particles that are consistent with the usual requirements of Lorentz invariance, unitarity, crossing symmetry, and…
The minimal Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) predicts the emergence of towers of superextremal states in both weak and strong coupling limits. In this work, we study M-theory compactified on a special class of Calabi-Yau threefolds to…
A longstanding conjecture states that global symmetries should be absent in quantum gravity. By investigating large classes of Type IIB four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ effective field theories, we enlist the potential generalized global…