Related papers: A note on modular invariant species scale and pote…
The counting of the number of light modes in a gravitational theory is captured by the notion of the `species scale', which serves as an effective UV cutoff below the Planck scale. We propose to define a moduli-dependent species scale in…
The species scale $\Lambda_s\leq M_{pl}$ serves as a UV cutoff in the gravitational sector of an EFT and can depend on the moduli of the theory as the spectrum of the theory varies. We argue that the dependence of the species scale…
We study the scalar potentials that arise from higher curvature corrections in general $f(R)$ theories of gravity and their connection to a dynamical species scale. Starting from general considerations in arbitrary dimensions, we show that…
In a quantum theory of gravity, the species scale $\Lambda_s$ can be defined as the scale at which corrections to the Einstein action become important or alternatively as codifying the "number of light degrees of freedom", due to the fact…
The 'Species Scale' has proved to be an important concept when studying consistent effective actions in Quantum Gravity. This is a short summary of my contribution to the Corfu Summer Institute in September 2025, in which I covered two…
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…
The most natural expectation away from asymptotic limits in moduli space of supergravity theories is the desert scenario, where there are few states between massless fields and the quantum gravity cutoff. In this paper we initiate a…
Potentials in cosmological inflation often involve scalars with trans-Planckian ranges. As a result, towers of states become massless and their presence pushes the fundamental scale not to coincide with $M_{\rm P}$ but rather with the…
We analyze the one-loop effects of massive fields on 2-to-2 scattering processes involving gravitons. It has been suggested that in the presence of gravity, any local effective field theory description must break down at the "species…
We consider the case of several scalar fields, charged under a number of U(1) factors, acquiring vacuum expectation values due to an anomalous U(1). We demonstrate how to make redefinitions at the superfield level in order to account for…
In Quantum Gravity (QG), large moduli values lead to towers of exponentially light states, making the QG cut-off field-dependent. In 4D supersymmetric (SUSY) theories, this cut-off is set by the species scale $\Lambda(z_i, \bar{z}_i)$,…
We demonstrate that a broad class of modular inflation models predicts the emergence of new physics within an energy range of approximately \( 10^{15} \, \mathrm{GeV} \) to \( 10^{17} \, \mathrm{GeV} \). This prediction arises by comparing…
Infinite distance limits in the moduli space of a quantum gravity theory are characterized by having infinite towers of states becoming light, as dictated by the Distance Conjecture in the Swampland program. These towers imply a drastic…
The species cutoff is a moduli-dependent quantity signaling the onset of quantum gravitational phenomena, whose form can be oftentimes determined from higher-derivative and higher-curvature corrections within low-energy gravitational EFTs.…
We derive topological string amplitudes on local Calabi-Yau manifolds in terms of polynomials in finitely many generators of special functions. These objects are defined globally in the moduli space and lead to a description of mirror…
The genus-dependence of multi-loop superstring amplitudes is bounded at large orders in perturbation theory using the super-Schottky group parametrization of supermoduli space. Partial estimates of supermoduli space integrals suggest an…
In the context of quantum gravitational systems, we place bounds on regions in field space with slowly varying positive potentials. Using the fact that $V<\Lambda_s^2$, where $\Lambda_s(\phi)$ is the species scale, and the emergent string…
We conjecture an intrinsic UV cutoff for the validity of the effective field theory with a large number of species coupled to gravity. In four dimensions such a UV cutoff takes the form $\Lambda=\sqrt{\lambda/ N}M_p$ for $N$ scalar fields…
We re-examine positivity bounds on the $2\to2$ scattering of identical massless real scalars with a novel perspective on how these bounds can be used to constrain the spectrum of UV theories. We propose that the entire space of consistent…
Standard lore asserts that quantum effects generically forbid the occurrence of light (non-pseudo-Goldstone) scalars having masses smaller than the Kaluza Klein scale, M_KK, in extra-dimensional models, or the gravitino mass, M_3/2, in…