Related papers: Moduli Stabilisation and the Holographic Swampland
The matter sector of four-dimensional effective supergravity models obtained from the weakly coupled heterotic string contains many moduli. In particular, flat directions of the D-term part of the scalar potential in the presence of an…
We discuss the restructuring of the BPS spectrum which occurs on certain submanifolds of the moduli/parameter space -- the curves of the marginal stability (CMS) -- using quasiclassical methods. We argue that in general a `composite' BPS…
For a real massless scalar field in general relativity with a negative cosmological constant, we uncover a large class of spherically symmetric initial conditions that are close to AdS, but whose numerical evolution does not result in black…
We observe that racetrack models for moduli stabilization are in tension with strong forms of the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC). Moreover, recently, it was noted that controlled KKLT-type de Sitter vacua seem to require a racetrack…
A scalar potential of the form $\lambda_{ab} \phi_a^2 \phi_b^2$ is bounded from below if its matrix of quartic couplings $\lambda_{ab}$ is copositive -- positive on non-negative vectors. Scalar potentials of this form occur naturally for…
Motivated by the notorious difficulties in determining the first quantum corrections to the spectrum of short strings in AdS_5xS^5 from first principles, we study closed bosonic strings in this background employing a static gauge. In this…
We perform a systematic analysis of moduli stabilisation for weakly coupled heterotic string theory compactified on manifolds which are Calabi-Yau up to alpha' effects. We review how to fix all geometric and bundle moduli in a…
In this paper we analyze the structure of supersymmetric vacua in compactifications of the heterotic string on certain manifolds with SU(3) structure. We first study the effective theories obtained from compactifications on half-flat…
The string theory swampland proposes that there is no UV-completion for an effective field theory with an exact (metastable) de Sitter vacua, thereby ruling out standard $\Lambda$CDM cosmology if the conjecture is taken seriously. The…
We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for a Conformal Field Theory to have a description in terms of a perturbative Effective Field Theory in AdS. The first two conditions are well-known: the existence of a perturbative `1/N'…
We study the evolution of the Gregory-Laflamme instability for black strings in global AdS spacetime, and investigate the CFT dual of the formation of a bulk naked singularity. Using an effective theory in the large D limit, we uncover a…
Motivated by the early discovery of the gigantic landscape of string theory vacua, in recent years people switched direction to try to find constraints on low energy effective field theories from UV-complete descriptions for example quantum…
The region of moduli space of string theories which is most likely to describe the "real world" is where the string coupling is about unity and the volume of extra compact dimensions is about the same size as the string volume. Here we map…
We examine the low-energy dynamics of CP^1 lumps coupled to gravity, taking into account the gravitational back-reaction of the spacetime geometry. We show that the single lump moduli space is equipped with a three-dimensional metric, and…
We introduce a novel set of stability conditions for vacua with broken Lorentz symmetry. The first class of conditions require that the energy be minimized under small geometric deformations, which translates into requiring the positivity…
We investigate fluctuations of hot and dense QCD plasma by using the gauge/gravity duality. To this end, we carry out a comprehensive classification and analysis of quasinormal modes of charged black holes in the holographic V-QCD model. It…
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…
The anti--de Sitter/conformal field theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence is a powerful tool that promises to provide new insights toward a full understanding of field theories under extreme conditions, including but not limited to quark-gluon…
Conformal field theories that exhibit spontaneous breaking of conformal symmetry (a moduli space of vacua) must satisfy a set of bootstrap constraints, involving the usual data (scaling dimensions and OPE coefficients) as well as new data…
We investigate the stability of massless topological black holes in AdS_d when minimally coupled to a scalar field of negative mass-squared. In many cases such black holes are unstable even though the field is above the BF bound and the…