Related papers: Positivity of the gravitational path integral impl…
This essay contends that in quantum gravity, some spatial regions do not admit a unitary Hilbert space. Because the gravitational path integral spontaneously breaks CPT symmetry, "states" with negative probability can be identified on…
The AdS/CFT correspondence states that certain conformal field theories are equivalent to string theories in a higher-dimensional anti-de Sitter space. One aspect of the correspondence is an equivalence of density matrices or, if one…
We conjecture and present evidence that any effective field theory coupled to gravity in flat space admits at most a finite number of fine tunings, depending on the amount of supersymmetry and spacetime dimension. In particular, this means…
While wormholes may be just as good a prediction of Einstein's theory as black holes, they are subject to severe restrictions from quantum field theory. In particular, a wormhole can only be held open by violating the null energy condition,…
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 find constrained instantons in Einstein gravity with and without a cosmological constant. These configurations are not saddle points of the Einstein-Hilbert action, yet they contribute to non-perturbative processes in quantum gravity. In…
The problem of topology change transitions in quantum gravity is investigated from the Wheeler-de Witt wave function point of view. It is argued that for all theories allowing wormhole effects the wave function of the universe is…
We consider properties of the gravitational path integral, ${Z}_{\text{grav}}$, of a four-dimensional gravitational effective field theory with $\Lambda>0$ at the quantum level. To leading order, ${Z}_{\text{grav}}$ is dominated by a…
The axionic weak gravity conjecture predicts the existence of instantons whose actions are less than their charges in appropriate units. We show that the conjecture is satisfied for the axion-dilaton-gravity system if we assume duality…
The Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) posits that gravity must be the weakest force in any consistent theory of quantum gravity. Originally formulated to constrain the landscape of effective field theories arising from string theory, the WGC…
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…
The problem of topology change transitions in quantum gravity is discussed. We argue that the contribution of the Giddings-Strominger wormhole to the Euclidean path integral is pure imaginary. This is checked by two techniques: by the…
Some time ago we have suggested that positive vacuum energy exhibits a finite quantum break time, which can be a signal that a positive cosmological constant is inconsistent. From the requirement that Universe never undergoes through…
Effective field theories that manifest UV/IR mode mixing in such a way as to be valid for arbitrarily large volumes, can be used for gravitational, non-black hole events to be accounted for. In formulating such theories with a large number…
The swampland is the set of seemingly consistent low-energy effective field theories that cannot be consistently coupled to quantum gravity. In this review we cover some of the conjectural properties that effective theories should possess…
Wormhole solutions in gravitational theories typically require exotic matter. Here we present a wormhole solution to the field equations of Einsteinian Cubic Gravity -- a phenomenological competitor to general relativity that includes terms…
The very early universe is understood in terms of quantum field theories on curved spacetime, where the classical background spacetime is typically an FLRW cosmology and the quantum fields which propagate on it include gravitational waves…
The Weak Gravity Conjecture, if valid, rules out simple models of Natural Inflation by restricting their axion decay constant to be sub-Planckian. We revisit stringy attempts to realise Natural Inflation, with a single open string axionic…
A new framework is proposed for general dynamic wormholes, unifying them with black holes. Both are generically defined locally by outer trapping horizons, temporal for wormholes and spatial or null for black and white holes. Thus wormhole…
The cosmological observations provide a strong evidence that there is a positive cosmological constant in our universe and thus the spacetime is asymptotical de Sitter space. The conjecture of gravity as the weakest force in the…