Related papers: A distance conjecture beyond moduli?
The Swampland Distance Conjecture (SDC) states that, as we move towards an infinite distance point in moduli space, a tower of states becomes exponentially light with the geodesic distance in any consistent theory of Quantum Gravity.…
Non-linear cosmic structures contain valuable information on the expansion history of the background space-time, the nature of dark matter, and the gravitational interaction. The recently developed kinetic field theory of cosmic structure…
We consider the cosmology obtained using scalar fields with a negative potential energy, such as employed to obtain an Ekpyrotic phase of contraction. Applying the covariant entropy bound to the tower of states dictated by the distance…
For any unitary conformal field theory in two dimensions with the central charge $c$, we prove that, if there is a nontrivial primary operator whose conformal dimension $\Delta$ vanishes in some limit on the conformal manifold, the…
We show that the recently proposed weak gravity conjecture\cite{AMNV0601} can be extended to a class of scalar field theories. Taking gravity into account, we find an upper bound on the gravity interaction strength, expressed in terms of…
We study scalar field theories invariant under transverse diffeomorphisms in cosmological contexts. We show that in the geometric optics approximation, the corresponding particles move along geodesics and contribute with the same active…
We study whether the universal runaway behaviour of stringy scalar potentials towards infinite field distance limits can produce an accelerated expanding cosmology \`{a} la quintessence. We identify a loophole to some proposed bounds that…
A generic class of string theories predicts the existence of light moduli fields, and they are expected to have masses $m_\phi$ comparable to the gravitino mass $m_{3/2}$ which is in a range of $10^{-2}$keV--1GeV in gauge-mediated…
We consider spacetime-dependent solutions to string theory models with tadpoles for dynamical fields, arising from non-trivial scalar potentials. The solutions have necessarily finite extent in spacetime, and are capped off by boundaries at…
We investigate three proposals of distance on the moduli space of metrics: (1) a distance derived from the symplectic form of phase space, (2) a distance obtained by moving BPS objects at small velocity, (3a) a distance proposed by DeWitt…
Several extensions of General Relativity and high energy physics include scalar fields as extra degrees of freedom. In the search for predictions in the non-linear regime of cosmological evolution, the community makes use of numerical…
We introduce a large class of scalar-tensor theories where gravity becomes stronger at large distances via the exchange of a scalar that mixes with the graviton. At small distances, i.e. large curvature, the scalar is screened via an analog…
The ground state of string theory may lie at a point of ``maximally enhanced symmetry", at which all of the moduli transform under continuous or discrete symmetries. This hypothesis, along with the hypotheses that the theory at high…
The Swampland Distance Conjecture states that at infinite distance in the scalar moduli space an infinite tower of particles become exponentially massless. We study this issue in the context of 4d type IIA and type IIB Calabi-Yau…
The Weak Gravity Conjecture is a nontrivial conjecture about quantum gravity that makes sharp, falsifiable predictions which can be checked in a broad range of string theory examples. However, in the presence of massless scalar fields…
We clearly formulate and study further a conjecture of effective field theory interaction with gravity in the cosmological context. The conjecture stems from the fact that the melding of quantum theory and gravity typically indicates the…
Gravity theories with non-minimally coupled scalar fields are used as characteristic examples in order to demonstrate the challenges, pitfalls and future perspectives of considering alternatives to general relativity. These lecture notes…
We construct gravitational modifications that go beyond Horndeski, namely theories with extended nonminimal derivative couplings, in which the coefficient functions depend not only on the scalar field but also on its kinetic energy. Such…
We show that, as a result of non-linear self-interactions, it is feasible, at least in light of the bounds coming from terrestrial tests of gravity, measurements of the Casimir force and those constraints imposed by the physics of compact…
In the framework of scalar-tensor theories of gravity, we construct a new kind of cosmological model that conflates inflation and ekpyrosis. During a phase of conflation, the universe undergoes accelerated expansion, but with crucial…