Related papers: Swampland Conjectures for an Almost Topological Gr…
We show how to make a topological string theory starting from an $N=4$ superconformal theory. The critical dimension for this theory is $\hat c= 2$ ($c=6$). It is shown that superstrings (in both the RNS and GS formulations) and critical…
We report on a classification of supersymmetric solutions to 11D supergravity with $SO(2,2) \times SO(3)$ isometry, which are AdS/CFT dual to 2D CFTs with $\mathcal{N} = (0,4)$ supersymmetry. We recover the Maldacena, Strominger, Witten…
Products of large-N conformal field theories coupled by multi-trace interactions in diverse dimensions are used to define quantum multi-gravity (multi-string theory) on a union of (asymptotically) AdS spaces. One-loop effects generate a…
A new swampland criterion has recently been proposed. As a consequence, it forbids the existence of de Sitter solutions in a low energy effective theory of a quantum gravity. However, there exist classical de Sitter solutions of…
We present a detailed analysis of $AdS_3$ gravity, the BTZ black hole and the associated conformal field theories (CFTs). In particular we focus on the non-extreme six-dimensional string solution with background metric $AdS_3 \times S^3$…
At the macrosopic level we study candidate 3D effective field theories associated to M theory in three dimensions. These represent analogs of 11D supergravity for eleven dimensional M-theory. At the microscopic level we study various world…
We propose a three dimensional non-supersymmetric theory that is conformal in the large N limit. In a certain well defined bosonic sub-sector of gauge invariant operators, this theory is planar equivalent to the theory recently proposed by…
We revisit some properties of AdS$_2$ Einstein-Maxwell gravity with the aim of reconciling apparently conflicting results in prior literature. We show that the two dimensional theory can be obtained as a dimensional reduction of the three…
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…
We construct higher-derivative gravity theories in three dimensions that admit holographic $c$-theorems and exhibit a unique maximally symmetric vacuum, at arbitrary order $n$ in the curvature. We show that these theories exhibit special…
By generalizing different recent works to the context of higher curvature gravity, we provide a unifying framework for three related results: (i) If an asymptotically AdS spacetime computes the entanglement entropies of ball-shaped regions…
The problem of time and the quantization of three dimensional gravity in the strong coupling regime is studied following path integral methods. The time is identified with the volume of spacetime. We show that the effective action describes…
The First and Second Swampland Conjectures (FSC & SSC) are substantially modified in non-critical string cosmology, in which cosmic time is identified with the time-like Liouville mode of the supercritical string. In this scenario the…
We describe how to construct an effective Hamiltonian for leading twist states in $d\ge 3$ CFTs based on the separation of scales that emerges at large spin $J$ between the AdS radius $\ell_{\rm AdS}$ and the characteristic distance $\sim…
Extremal cubic couplings in AdS relate bulk fields such that $\Delta_i+\Delta_j=\Delta_k$. Such couplings lead to divergent 3-point Witten diagrams, and do not occur in theories with maximal supersymmetry. We consider the simplest theories…
GR can be interpreted as a theory of evolving 3-geometries. A recent such formulation, the 3-space approach of Barbour, Foster and \'{O} Murchadha, also permits the construction of a limited number of other theories of evolving…
We propose quantum gravitational constraints on effective four-dimensional theories with N=1 supersymmetry. These Swampland constraints arise by demanding consistency of the worldsheet theory of a class of axionic, or EFT, strings whose…
Motivated by the lack of consensus on whether or not de Sitter (dS) lies in the Swampland, we use a recently developed braneworld construction and known Anti-de Sitter (AdS) vacua to compute an explicit effective dS cosmology in three…
This is a nontechnical introduction to recent work on quantum gravity using ideas from higher-dimensional algebra. We argue that reconciling general relativity with the Standard Model requires a `background-free quantum theory with local…
We find the exact quantum gravity partition function on the static patch of 3d de Sitter spacetime. We have worked in the Chern Simons Formulation of 3d Gravity. To obtain a non-perturbative result, we supersymmetrized the Chern Simons…