Related papers: dS Vacua and the Swampland
Non-supersymmetric string models are plagued with tadpoles for dynamical fields, which signal uncanceled forces sourced by the vacuum. We argue that in certain cases, uncanceled dynamical tadpoles can lead to inconsistencies with quantum…
The swampland is the set of seemingly consistent low-energy effective field theories that cannot be consistently coupled to quantum gravity. In this review we cover some of the conjectural properties that effective theories should possess…
This paper reexamines the question of vacuum decay in theories of quantum gravity. In particular it suggests that decay into stable flat or AdS vacua, never occurs. Instead, vacuum decay occurs, if at all, into a cosmological spacetime. If…
We propose a new version of the scalar Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) which would apply to any scalar field coupled to quantum gravity. For a single scalar it is given by the differential constraint $V''\leq…
The KKLT construction of dS vacua relies on an uplift term that arises from an anti-D3-brane. It was argued by Kachru, Pearson and Verlinde that this anti-D3-brane is an excited state in a supersymmetric theory since it can decay to a…
The "de Sitter constraint" on the space of effective scalar field theories consistent with superstring theory provides a lower bound on the slope of the potential of a scalar field which dominates the evolution of the Universe, e.g., a…
We study late-time acceleration scenarios using a quintessence field initially trapped in a metastable false vacuum state. The false vacuum has non-zero vacuum energy and could drive exponential expansion if not coupled with gravity. Upon…
It has recently been argued that string theory does not admit de Sitter vacua. This would imply that the current accelerated expansion of the universe is not driven by a cosmological constant (or vacuum energy) but by other means such as a…
We study a racetrack model in the presence of the leading alpha'-correction in flux compactification in Type IIB string theory, for the purpose of getting conceivable de-Sitter vacua in the large compactified volume approximation. Unlike…
We study $(2,2)$ and $(4,4)$ supersymmetric theories with superspace higher derivatives in two dimensions. A characteristic feature of these models is that they have several different vacua, some of which break supersymmetry. Depending on…
Single-field models of accelerated expansion with nearly flat potentials, despite being able to provide observationally viable explanations for the early-time cosmic inflation and the late-time cosmic acceleration, are in strong tension…
We analyse geometric type IIA flux compactifications leading to N=4 gauged supergravities in four dimensions. The complete landscape of isotropic vacua is presented, which turns out to belong to a unique theory. The solutions admit an…
We present a model of slow-roll inflation in the context of effective Supergravities arising from string theories. The uplifting of the potential (to generate dS or Minkowski vacua) is provided by the D-term associated to an anomalous U(1),…
We study the stability of vacua with spontaneously broken supersymmetry in N=2 supergravity theories with only hypermultiplets. Focusing on the projection of the scalar mass matrix along the sGoldstino directions, we are able to derive a…
We develop a theory of static BPS domain walls in stringy landscape and present a large family of BPS walls interpolating between different supersymmetric vacua. Examples include KKLT models, STU models, type IIB multiple flux vacua, and…
We study supergravity theories with supersymmetry intrinsically non-linearly realized supported only by four-form flux. We demonstrate that supersymmetry can be restored by the evaporation of the goldstino multiplet. Such procedure requires…
We initiate a systematic study of type II orientifold flux vacua in three dimensions including gauge and metric fluxes, O-planes and D-branes. We derive simple flux models (we dub them RSTU-models) that admit a description in terms of…
We describe a modified KKLT mechanism of moduli stabilization in a supersymmetric Minkowski vacuum state. In this mechanism, supersymmetry ensures vacuum stability and positivity of the mass matrix for the dilaton, complex structure, and…
In this work we investigate a $Z_2$ symmetric model of one scalar field $\phi$ in $(1,1)$ dimension. The model is characterized by a continuous transition from a potential $V(\phi)$ with two vacua to the vacuumless case. The model has kink…
Landscape cosmology posits the existence of a convoluted, multidimensional, scalar potential -- the "landscape" -- with vast numbers of metastable minima. Random matrices and random functions in many dimensions provide toy models of the…