Related papers: Infinite Distances and the Axion Weak Gravity Conj…
The Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) is a proposed constraint on theories with gauge fields and gravity, requiring the existence of light charged particles and/or imposing an upper bound on the field theory cutoff $\Lambda$. If taken as a…
We test exact marginality of the deformation describing the resolution of a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ orbifold by analyzing the closed superstring equations of motion to third order in the size, including $\alpha'$ corrections. We find that the third…
Supercritical string theories in D>10 dimensions with no moduli are described, generalizing the asymmetric orientifold construction of one of the authors. By taking the number of dimensions to be large and turning on fluxes, dilaton…
The dimensional reduction of eleven dimensional supergravity on a Calabi-Yau manifold gives N=2 supergravity in five dimensions with $h_{1,1}$ vector and $h_{2,1}+1$ hypermultiplets. In this paper instanton solutions are constructed which…
We examine the minimal constraints imposed by the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) on the particle spectrum of a quantum gravity theory. Towers of super-extremal states have previously been argued to be required for consistency of the WGC…
We study possibilities for lowering the decay constants of superstring axions. In the heterotic Calabi-Yau compactification, a localized model-dependent axion can appear at a nearly collapsing 2-cycle. The effect of flux can be used for…
The majority of models of inflation in string theory predict an absence of measurable gravitational waves, r << 10^{-3}. The most promising proposals for making string theoretic models that yield measurable tensor fluctuations involve axion…
We apply the covariant entropy bound argument supporting the de Sitter swampland conjecture to the quintessence model, to find out the condition for the background to be unstable. More concretely, the background is unstable when the matter…
Intersecting D-brane models and their T-dual magnetic compactifications yield attractive models of particle physics where magnetic flux plays a twofold role, being the source of fermion chirality as well as supersymmetry breaking. A…
We show that axions interacting with abelian gauge fields obtain a potential from loops of magnetic monopoles. This is a consequence of the Witten effect: the axion field causes the monopoles to acquire an electric charge and alters their…
Upon investigating asymptotic regimes of the F-theory moduli space, we verify that a tower of light states arises as predicted by the Distance Conjecture. Specifically, we provide a geometric classification of the infinite distance limits…
We propose a scenario for realizing super-Planckian axion decay constants in Calabi-Yau orientifolds of type IIB string theory, leading to large-field inflation. Our construction is a simple embedding in string theory of the mechanism of…
The recent detection of B-modes by BICEP2 has non-trivial implications for axion dark matter implied by combining the tensor interpretation with isocurvature constraints from Planck. In this paper the measurement is taken as fact, and its…
Small instantons can play an important role in Yang-Mills theories whose gauge couplings are sizeable at small distances. An interesting class of theories where this could occur is in weakly-gauged holographic models (dual to Yang-Mills…
By properly accounting for the invariance of a Calabi-Yau sigma-model under shifts of the $B$-field by integral amounts (analagous to the $\theta$-angle in QCD), we show that the moduli spaces of such sigma-models can often be enlarged to…
We argue that field trajectories, which lead to cosmic acceleration and feature rapid turns near the boundary of the moduli space, are in the Swampland. We obtain this result by assuming the validity of the Swampland Distance Conjecture…
There is significant evidence suggesting that continuous global symmetries are always gauged in quantum gravity. However, very weakly gauged symmetries seem global to an effective field theory expansion in powers of Newton's constant. We…
The weak gravity conjecture and the shear viscosity to entropy density bound place constraints on low energy effective field theories that may help to distinguish which theories can be UV completed. Recently, there have been suggestions of…
We calculate a new contribution to the axion mass that arises from gluons propagating in a 5th dimension at high energies. By uplifting the 4D instanton solution to five dimensions, the positive frequency modes of the Kaluza-Klein states…
The non-perturbative corrections to the universal hypermultiplet moduli space metric in the type-IIA superstring compactification on a Calabi-Yau threefold are investigated in the presence of 4d, N=2 supergravity. These corrections come…