Related papers: Dynamical Cobordism and Swampland Distance Conject…

We describe timelike linear dilaton backgrounds of supercritical string theories as time-dependent Dynamical Cobordisms in string theory, with their spacelike singularity as a boundary defining the beginning of time. We propose and provide…

We study the cobordism conjecture of McNamara and Vafa which asserts that the bordism group of quantum gravity is trivial. In the context of type IIB string theory compactified on a circle, this predicts the presence of D7-branes. On the…

We propose a generalisation of the Weak Gravity Conjecture in the presence of scalar fields. The proposal is guided by properties of extremal black holes in ${\cal N}=2$ supergravity, but can be understood more generally in terms of…

String theory is canonically accompanied with a space-time interpretation which determines S-matrix-like observables, and connects to the standard physics at low energies in the guise of local effective field theory. Recently, we have…

We investigate the (conformally coupled) scalar field on a general Carrollian spacetime in arbitrary dimension. The analysis discloses electric and magnetic dynamics. For both, we provide the energy and the momenta of the field, accompanied…

We discuss the singularities in the moduli space of string compactifications to six dimensions with $N=1$ supersymmetry. Such singularities arise from either massless particles or non-critical tensionless strings. The points with…

In this paper we consider a class of static spacetimes in higher dimensional ($D \ge 4$) scalar-torsion theories with non-minimal derivative coupling and the scalar potential turned on. The spacetime is conformal to a product space of a…

Modular invariance is a fundamental symmetry in string compactifications, constraining both the structure of the effective theory and the dynamics of moduli and matter fields. It has also gained renewed importance in the context of…

We discuss the cosmology of axion-scalar systems in asymptotic limits of type IIB/F-theory flux compactifications. These results allow us to test a putative extension of the Distance Conjecture in a dynamical setting, which posits that…

We explore BPS strings in supergravity theories in six-dimensions and related Swampland Conjectures. We first propose a general modular ansatz for bootstrapping elliptic genera of 2d worldvolume theories on strings in the 6d theories. By…

A method to solve various aspects of the strong coupling expansion of the superconformal field theory duals of AdS_5 x X geometries from first principles is proposed. The main idea is that at strong coupling the configurations that dominate…

We consider consequences of triviality of cobordism classes and anomaly cancellation in supergravity theories in $d>6$. We argue that this leads to the existence of certain defects which we call "I-folds" (a generalization of orientifolds).…

The transcendental expectation of string theory is that the nature of the fundamental forces, particle spectra and masses, together with coupling constants, is uniquely determined by mathematical and logical consistency, non-empirically,…

We propose a sharpened version of Dynamical Cobordism, where the physical structure $\xi$ of the theory in question determines an allowed range $R^\xi$ for the critical exponent $\delta$. We interpret a singularity with $\delta \in R^\xi$…

We point out that the moduli sector of the $(2,2)$ string compactification with its nonperturbatively preserved non-compact symmetries is a fertile framework to study global topological defects, thus providing a natural source for the large…

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…

Dense distributions of string-like objects in material media are considered in terms of continuum field theory. The strings are assumed to carry a quantized abelian topological charge, such as the Burgers vector of dislocations in solids or…

Infinite-dimensional Grassmannian manifold contains moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces of all genera. This well known fact leads to a conjecture that non-perturbative string theory can be formulated in terms of Grassmannian. We present new…

Superstring theories in ten dimensions allow spacetime supersymmetry breaking at the string scale at the expense of controlled Minkowski backgrounds. The next-to-maximally symmetric backgrounds, found by Dudas and Mourad, involve a warped…

I argue that string theory compactified on a Riemann surface crosses over at small volume to a higher dimensional background of supercritical string theory. Several concrete measures of the count of degrees of freedom of the theory yield…