English

Oh, wait, O8 de Sitter may be unstable!

High Energy Physics - Theory 2021-03-31 v2

Abstract

We analyze the stability of four-dimensional de Sitter vacua constructed by compactifying massive Type IIA supergravity in the presence of two O8 sources [1]. When embedded in String Theory the first source has a clear interpretation as an O8_- plane, but the second one could correspond to either an O8+_+ plane or to an O8_- plane with 16 D8-branes on top. We find that this latter solution has a tachyonic instability, corresponding to the D8-branes moving away from the O8_- plane. We comment on the possible ways of distinguishing between these sources.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2010.05936,
  title  = {Oh, wait, O8 de Sitter may be unstable!},
  author = {Iosif Bena and G. Bruno De Luca and Mariana Graña and Gabriele Lo Monaco},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.05936},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

19 pages and 4 figures. Version 2: references added

R2 v1 2026-06-23T19:17:19.697Z