Related papers: Sharpening the Supersymmetric Axion Weak Gravity C…
We test various conjectures about quantum gravity for six-dimensional string compactifications in the framework of F-theory. Starting with a gauge theory coupled to gravity, we analyze the limit in K\"ahler moduli space where the gauge…
We study a scenario allowing a solution of the strong charge parity problem via the Peccei-Quinn mechanism, implemented in gravity with torsion. In this framework there appears a torsion-related pseudoscalar field known as Kalb-Ramond…
We develop an effective field theory to describe the coupling of non-thermal quantum black holes to particles such as those of the Standard Model. The effective Lagrangian is determined by imposing that the production cross section of a…
We continue the investigation of F-term axion monodromy inflation in string theory, while seriously taking the issue of moduli stabilization into account. For a number of closed and open string models, we show that they suffer from serious…
We derive rigorous bounds on corrections to Einstein gravity using unitarity and analyticity of graviton scattering amplitudes. In $D\geq 4$ spacetime dimensions, these consistency conditions mandate positive coefficients for certain…
Any would-be Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry is vulnerable to various types of explicit breaking. It has long been recognized that these can disrupt the axion solution to the strong CP problem. There have also been suggestions that, under…
We consider the gravitational correction to the running of gauge coupling. Weak gravity conjecture implies that the gauge theories break down when the gravitational correction becomes greater than the contribution from gauge theories. This…
We consider effective theories with massive fields that have spins larger than or equal to two. We conjecture a universal cutoff scale on any such theory that depends on the lightest mass of such fields. This cutoff corresponds to the mass…
The Weak Gravity Conjecture predicts that in quantum gravity there should exist overcharged states, that is states with charge larger than their mass. Extending this to large masses and charges, we are expecting similar overcharged…
Axion is a light pseudoscalar particle of much interest for physics of elementary particles and for astrophysics. We review the recently obtained constraints on axion to nucleon coupling constants following from different experiments on…
We invoke probe brane arguments to classify the asymptotic behavior of general five-dimensional supergravity theories with eight supercharges near infinite distance boundaries of the vector multiplet moduli space. Imposing consistency of…
Motivated by the early discovery of the gigantic landscape of string theory vacua, in recent years people switched direction to try to find constraints on low energy effective field theories from UV-complete descriptions for example quantum…
We consider known examples of non-supersymmetric AdS$_7$ and AdS$_4$ solutions arising from compactifications of massive type IIA supergravity and study their stability, taking into account the coupling between closed- and open-string…
I present an informal overview of several recent results about Euclidean saddle points sourced by axion fields in quantum gravity (AdS/CFT), such as wormholes, their extremal "D-instanton" limits and their under-extremal singular…
There are strong reasons to believe that global symmetries of quantum theories cannot be exact in the presence of gravity. While this has been argued at the qualitative level, establishing a quantitative statement is more challenging. In…
The effective field theory (EFT) concept provides a necessary tool for obtaining general predictions of low-energy theory valid below its unitarity-breaking scale (cutoff scale). Early Universe inflation and subsequent reheating could be a…
We show that axions interacting with abelian gauge fields obtain a potential from loops of magnetic monopoles. This is a consequence of the Witten effect: the axion field causes the monopoles to acquire an electric charge and alters their…
We analyse the impact of quantum gravity on the possible solutions to the strong CP problem which utilize the spontaneously broken discrete symmetries, such as parity and time reversal invariance. We find that the stability of the solution…
Continuous global symmetries are expected to be broken by gravity, which can lead to important phenomenological consequences. A prime example is the threat that this poses to the viability of the Peccei-Quinn solution to the strong CP…
Quantum Focusing is a powerful conjecture, which plays a key role in the current proofs of many well-known quantum gravity theorems, including various consistency conditions, and causality constraints in AdS/CFT. I conjecture a (weaker)…