Related papers: A missing link: Brane networks and the Cobordism C…
The U-dualities of maximally supersymmetric supergravity theories lead to celebrated non-perturbative constraints on the structure of quantum gravity. They can also lead to the presence of global symmetries since manifolds equipped with…
We argue that any proposed quantum theory of gravity with non-trivial cobordism classes in the space of configurations belongs to the Swampland. The argument is based on the assumption that there are no global symmetries in a consistent…
The three tachyon-free non-supersymmetric string theories in ten dimensions provide a handle on quantum gravity away from the supersymmetric lamppost. However, they have not been shown to be fully consistent; although local anomalies cancel…
It has been proposed that cobordism and K-theory groups, which can be mathematically related in certain cases, are physically associated to generalised higher-form symmetries. As a consequence, they should be broken or gauged in any…
The Cobordism Conjecture states that any Quantum Gravity configuration admits, at topological level, a boundary ending spacetime. We study the dynamical realization of cobordism, as spacetime dependent solutions of Einstein gravity coupled…
The cobordism conjecture of the swampland program states that the bordism group of quantum gravity must be trivial. We investigate this statement in several directions, on both the mathematical and physical side. We consider the Whitehead…
The recently proposed Swampland Cobordism Conjecture predicts the existence of new non-supersymmetric objects which supplement the spectrum of low-energy gravitational effective field theories. In this paper, we study a subset of these…
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).…
We study the topological properties of bordisms interpolating between different 9d gauged supergravities obtained from compactification of type IIB string theory on $\mathbb{S}^1$ with a non-trivial $\mathsf{SL}(2,\mathbb{Z})$ bundle. We…
The theories of brane world and multidimensional gravity are widely discussed in the literature in connection with problems of evolution of early Universe, including dark matter and energy. A natural physical concept is that a distinguished…
In this work we investigate the Swampland Cobordism Conjecture in the context of type IIB string theory geometries with non-trivial duality bundle. Quite remarkably, we find that many non-trivial bordism classes with duality bundles in…
R7-branes are a class of recently discovered non-supersymmetric real codimension-two duality defects in type IIB string theory predicted by the Swampland Cobordism Conjecture. For type IIB realizations of 6D SCFTs with $\mathcal{N} = (2,0)$…
We discuss some general properties of "defect branes", i.e. branes of co-dimension two, in (toroidally compactified) IIA/IIB string theory. In particular, we give a full classification of the supersymmetric defect branes in dimensions 2 < D…
The modern approach to $m$-form global symmetries in a $d$-dimensional quantum field theory (QFT) entails specifying dimension $d-m-1$ topological generalized symmetry operators which non-trivially link with $m$-dimensional defect…
A relative theory is a boundary condition of a higher-dimensional topological quantum field theory (TQFT), and carries a non-trivial defect group formed by mutually non-local defects living in the relative theory. Prime examples are 6d…
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…
Recently, Kim, Shiu and Vafa proposed general consistency conditions for six dimensional supergravity theories with minimal supersymmetry coming from couplings to strings. We test them in explicit perturbative orientifold models in order to…
Four dimensional supergravities may be the right framework to describe particle physics at low energies. Its connection to the underlying string theory can be implemented through higher dimensional supergravities which bear special…
The U-dualities of maximally supersymmetric non-chiral supergravity (SUGRA) theories lead to strong constraints on the non-perturbative structure of quantum gravity. In this paper we determine Spin- and Pin-lifts of these dualities, which…
We explicitly compute correlation functions with the insertion of a continuous symmetry defect in bosonic field theories. To recover the expected action, the definition of the defect must be modified to include a specific contact term. This…