Search

It has been proposed that flux compactifications of supercritical string theories (i.e., with spacetime dimension D > 10) have dS vacua, with large D acting as a control parameter for corrections to the classical spacetime effective action. In this paper, we provide a detailed analysis of the self-consistency of such models, focussing on α′ and backreaction corrections. We first show that all supercritical AdS, Minkowski and dS vacua in this setting have ≳ O 1 curvature and/or field strengths in the string frame. This may be in tension with suppressing α′ corrections unless the coefficients of the higher-derivative terms have a sufficiently strong large-D suppression. We then argue that an additional and more severe problem arises in the dS case due to the backreaction of O-planes. In particular, we argue using a combination of geometric bounds and string-theory constraints that the O-plane backreaction is large in supercritical dS models. This implies that a large part of the naive classical geometry is eaten up by singular holes and thus indicates a breakdown of the classical description. Our finding resonates with several other recent results suggesting that string theory does not admit dS vacua in regimes where string and backreaction corrections are under control. As byproducts of our analysis, we derive a number of technical results that are useful beyond the specific applications in this paper. In particular, we compute the leading backreaction corrections to the smeared solution in a general flux compactification from D to d dimensions for an arbitrary distribution of O-planes and D-branes. We further argue for a general estimate for Green's functions on compact manifolds (and therefore for the backreaction corrections) in terms of their diameter, volume and dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moduli stabilisation in string compactifications with many light scalars remains a major blind-spot in the string landscape. In these regimes, analytic methods cease to work for generic choices of UV parameters which is why numerical techniques have to be exploited. In this paper, we implement algorithms based on JAX, heavily utilising automatic differentiation, just-in-time compilation and parallelisation features, to efficiently construct string vacua. This implementation provides a golden opportunity to efficiently analyse large unexplored regions of the string landscape. As a first example, we apply our techniques to the search of Type IIB flux vacua in Calabi-Yau orientifold compactifications. We argue that our methods only scale mildly with the Hodge numbers making exhaustive studies of low energy effective field theories with O (100) scalar fields feasible. Using small computing resources, we are able to construct O (106) flux vacua per geometry with h1,2 ≥ 2, vastly out-performing previous systematic searches. In particular, we showcase the efficiency of our methods by presenting generic vacua with fluxes below the tadpole constraint set by the orientifold with up to h1,2 = 25 complex structure moduli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anti-D3 branes at the bottom of warped throats, commonly used to uplift the cosmological constant in String-Theory de Sitter proposals, source a plethora of supersymmetry-breaking fluxes, that can interact nontrivially with other ingredients of the flux compactification. In this paper we perform a complex-structure decomposition of these fluxes, and compute the effect of the (0,3) flux component on the stabilization of Kähler moduli via D7-branes gaugino condensation. This allows us to obtain a new constraint on the validity of this stabilization mechanism. This effect does not appear hard to satisfy in de Sitter construction proposals that use long warped throats, but may be problematic in proposals where the warping is small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present a large class of flux backgrounds and solve the shortest vector problem in type IIB string theory on an orientifold of the 19 Landau-Ginzburg model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this paper, we explore the string theory landscape obtained from type IIB and F-theory flux compactifications. We first give a comprehensive introduction to a number of mathematical finiteness theorems, indicate how they have been obtained, and clarify their implications for the structure of the locus of flux vacua. Subsequently, in order to address finer details of the locus of flux vacua, we propose three mathematically precise conjectures on the expected number of connected components, geometric complexity, and dimensionality of the vacuum locus. With the recent breakthroughs on the tameness of Hodge theory, we believe that they are attainable to rigorous mathematical tools and can be successfully addressed in the near future. The remainder of the paper is concerned with more technical aspects of the finiteness theorems. In particular, we investigate their local implications and explain how infinite tails of disconnected vacua approaching the boundaries of the moduli space are forbidden. To make this precise, we present new results on asymptotic expansions of Hodge inner products near arbitrary boundaries of the complex structure moduli space.

We consider type IIB compactifications on a general 4D group manifold with different types of possible spacetime filling O-planes and the corresponding D-branes parallel to them. Once fluxes allowed by the associated orientifold projection are included, a 6D 풩 = (1, 1) gauged supergravity is obtained. In this paper we show how the consistent coupling to dynamical open strings living on the spacetime filling D-branes may be captured by the inclusion of extra vector multiplets and extra embedding tensor deformations on the gauged supergravity side. As a result, the quadratic constraints on the embedding tensor consistently reproduce the source corrected 10D Bianchi identities. Furthermore, the field strength modifications induced by the open string sector could potentially be understood as U-dual versions of the Green-Schwarz terms. Finally, the entire scalar potential of the theory exactly matches the one obtained from reduction of the bulk action plus the source contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Emergence Proposal in Quantum Gravity it is conjectured that all light-particle kinetic terms are absent in the fundamental ultraviolet theory and are generated by quantum corrections in the infrared. It has been argued that this may provide for some microscopic understanding of the Weak Gravity and Distance conjectures. In the present paper we take the first steps towards a systematic study of Emergence in the context of string theory. We emphasize the crucial role of the species scale in any effective field theory coupled to gravity, and discuss its computation in string theory and general systems with light towers of states. We then introduce the notion of Emergence and show how kinetic terms for moduli, gauge bosons and fermions may be generated. One-loop computations play an important role in Emergence, so we present detailed calculations in d spacetime dimensions for the wave-function renormalization of scalars, vectors and fermions. We extend and check the Emergence Proposal in a number string vacua, including 4d N = 2 theories arising from type IIA on a CY3, where the towers at strong coupling are comprised by D0 and (wrapped) D2-branes, and also elaborate on how instanton corrections would fit within the emergence picture. Higher dimensional examples are also discussed, including 6d and 7d models arising from F-/M-theory on an elliptic CY3 or a K3 surface. We also consider 10d string theories and study in some detail the emergence mechanism in type IIA. We show as well how the flux potential in 4d may be obtained from the emergence prescription, by analyzing the corresponding decompactification limits to M-theory. We find that the required kinetic terms for the dual 3-form fields can arise upon integrating out towers of massive gravitini (and bosonic superpartners). Our analysis renders support to the Emergence Proposal, and to the idea that infinite distance singularities may arise in Quantum Gravity as an intrinsic infrared phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been argued that orientifold vacua with fluxes in type IIA string theory can achieve moduli stabilisation and arbitrary decoupling between the AdS and KK scales upon sending certain unconstrained RR-flux quanta to infinity. In this paper, we find a novel scalar field in the open-string sector that allows us to interpolate between such IIA vacua that differ in flux quanta and find that the limit of large fluxes is nicely consistent with the distance conjecture. This shows that the massive IIA vacua pass an important Swampland criterion and suggests that scale-separated AdS vacua might not be in the Swampland. Our analysis also naturally suggests a flux analogue of "Reid's fantasy" where flux vacua that differ in quantised flux numbers can be connected through trajectories in open-string field space and not just via singular domain walls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we derive a characterisation of negative scalar potentials, V < 0, in d-dimensional effective theories of quantum gravity. This is achieved thanks to an Anti-Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture (ATCC), inspired by a refined version of the TCC. The ATCC relies on the fact that in a contracting universe, modes that become sub-Planckian in length violate the validity of the effective theory. In the asymptotics of field space, we deduce that −V′/V ≥ c0 when V′ ≥ 0. The rate c 0 = 2 / d − 1 d − 2 is successfully tested in several string compactifications for d ≥ 4. In addition, a new asymptotic condition, V′′/V ≥ c 0 2 , is derived. By extrapolation to anti-de Sitter solutions of radius l, we infer the existence of a scalar whose mass should obey m2l2 ≲ −2. This property is verified in many supersymmetric examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gaugino condensation on D-branes wrapping internal cycles gives a mechanism to stabilize the associated moduli. According to the effective field theory, this gives rise, when combined with fluxes, to supersymmetric AdS4 solutions. In this paper we provide a ten-dimensional description of these vacua. We first find the supersymmetry equations for type II AdS4 vacua with gaugino condensates on D-branes, in the framework of generalized complex geometry. We then solve them for type IIB compactifications with gaugino condensates on smeared D7-branes. We show that supersymmetry requires a (conformal) Calabi-Yau manifold and imaginary self-dual three-form fluxes with an additional (0,3) component. The latter is proportional to the cosmological constant, whose magnitude is determined by the expectation value of the gaugino condensate and the stabilized volume of the cycle wrapped by the branes. This confirms, qualitatively and quantitatively, the results obtained using effective field theory. We find that exponential separation between the AdS and the KK scales seems possible as long as the three-form fluxes are such that their (0,3) component is exponentially suppressed. As for the localized solution, it requires going beyond SU(3)-structure internal manifolds. Nevertheless, we show that the action can be evaluated on-shell without relying on the details of such complicated configuration. We find that no "perfect square" structure occurs, and the result is divergent. We compute the four-fermion contributions, including a counterterm, needed to cancel these divergences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is believed, but not demonstrated, that the large radius massless spectrum of a heterotic string theory compactified to four-dimensional Minkowski space should obey equations that split into ‘F-terms’ and ‘D-terms’ in ways analogous to that of four-dimensional supersymmetric field theories. This is not easy to do directly as string theory is first quantised. Nonetheless, in this paper we demonstrate this splitting. We construct an operator D ¯ whose kernel amounts to deformations solving ‘F-term’ type equations. In many previous works in this field, the spin connection is treated as an independent degree of freedom (and so is spurious or fake); here our results apply on the physical moduli space in which these fake degrees of freedom are eliminated. We utilise the moduli space metric, constructed in previous work, to define an adjoint operator D ¯ †. The kernel of D ¯ † amounts to ‘D-term’ type equations. Put together, we show there is a D ¯ -operator in which the massless spectrum are harmonic representatives of D ¯ . We conjecture that one could better study the moduli space of heterotic theories by studying the corresponding cohomology, a natural counterpart to studying the ∂ ¯ -cohomology groups relevant to moduli of Calabi-Yau manifolds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract It has been proposed that flux compactifications of supercritical string theories (i.e., with spacetime dimension D > 10) have dS vacua, with large D acting as a control parameter for corrections to the classical spacetime effective action. In this paper, we provide a detailed analysis of the self-consistency of such models, focussing on α ′ and backreaction corrections. We first show that all supercritical AdS, Minkowski and dS vacua in this setting have ≳ O 1 $$ \gtrsim \mathcal{O}(1) $$ curvature and/or field strengths in the string frame. This may be in tension with suppressing α ′ corrections unless the coefficients of the higher-derivative terms have a sufficiently strong large-D suppression. We then argue that an additional and more severe problem arises in the dS case due to the backreaction of O-planes. In particular, we argue using a combination of geometric bounds and string-theory constraints that the O-plane backreaction is large in supercritical dS models. This implies that a large part of the naive classical geometry is eaten up by singular holes and thus indicates a breakdown of the classical description. Our finding resonates with several other recent results suggesting that string theory does not admit dS vacua in regimes where string and backreaction corrections are under control. As byproducts of our analysis, we derive a number of technical results that are useful beyond the specific applications in this paper. In particular, we compute the leading backreaction corrections to the smeared solution in a general flux compactification from D to d dimensions for an arbitrary distribution of O-planes and D-branes. We further argue for a general estimate for Green’s functions on compact manifolds (and therefore for the backreaction corrections) in terms of their diameter, volume and dimension.

The KKLT scenario, one of the few ideas to realize dS vacua in string theory, consists of two steps: the first involves the construction of a supersymmetric AdS vacuum with a small negative cosmological constant, and the second involves breaking supersymmetry and uplifting the energy to achieve dS. In this paper we use conventional holography to argue why it is not possible to complete the first step. We obtain this by putting a bound on the central charge of the dual theory which involves branes wrapping special Lagrangian cycles in CY 4-folds. We find that l AdS 2 ≲ χ(CY4). Since l species 2 ≳ χ(CY4) this leads to lAdS/lspecies ≲ 1 leading at best to a highly curved AdS which is beyond the validity of the EFT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely believed that string theory easily allows for a QCD axion in the cosmologically favored mass range. The required small decay constant, fa ≪ MP, can be implemented by using a large compactification volume. This points to the Large Volume Scenario which in turn makes certain cosmological predictions: first, the closed string axion behaves similarly to a field-theoretic axion in the pre-inflationary scenario, i.e. the initial value can be tuned but one is constrained by isocurvature fluctuations. In addition, the volume represents a long-lived modulus that may lead to an early matter-dominated phase. Finally, the decay of the volume modulus to its own axion tends to overproduce dark radiation. In this paper we aim to carefully analyze the cosmology by studying models that not only allow for a QCD axion but also include inflation. Quite generally, limits on isocurvature fluctuations restrict us to relatively low-scale inflation, which in the present stringy context points to Kähler moduli inflation. As a novel feature we find that the lightest (volume) modulus couples strongly to the Higgs. It hence quickly decays to the SM, thus resolving the original dark radiation problem. This decay is much faster than that of the inflaton, implying that reheating is determined by the inflaton decay. The inflaton could potentially reintroduce a dark radiation problem since it decays to lighter moduli and their axions with equal rates. However, due its mixing with the QCD-saxion, the inflaton has also a direct decay rate to the SM, enhanced by the number of SM gauge bosons. This results in an amount of dark radiation that is consistent with present limits but potentially detectable in future measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We classified in [1] certain 10d supergravity solutions with a 4d de Sitter, Minkowski or anti-de Sitter spacetime. We then found new solutions in previously unexplored classes. In this paper we study their properties, compare them to swampland conjectures, and make new observations. Using new numerical tools, we first identify all Lie algebras underlying the 6d group manifolds, allowing us to discuss their compactness. We then investigate scale separation, and prove related no-go theorems. Last but not least, we automatize and analyze the stability of all solutions. This leads us to propose the Massless Minkowski Conjecture, claiming the systematic presence of a 4d flat direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-simply connected Calabi-Yau threefolds play a central role in the study of string compactifications. Such manifolds are usually described by quotienting a simply connected Calabi-Yau variety by a freely acting discrete symmetry. For the Calabi-Yau threefolds described as complete intersections in products of projective spaces, a classification of such symmetries descending from linear actions on the ambient spaces of the varieties has been given in [16]. However, which symmetries can be described in this manner depends upon the description that is being used to represent the manifold. In [24] new, favorable, descriptions were given of this data set of Calabi-Yau threefolds. In this paper, we perform a classification of cyclic symmetries that descend from linear actions on the ambient spaces of these new favorable descriptions. We present a list of 129 symmetries/non-simply connected Calabi-Yau threefolds. Of these, at least 33, and potentially many more, are topologically new varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a supersymmetric compactification of Type II supergravity, preservation of N = 1 supersymmetry in four dimensions requires that the structure group of the generalized tangent bundle TM ⨁ T∗M of the six dimensional internal manifold M is reduced from SO(6) to SU(3) × SU(3). This topological condition on the internal manifold implies existence of two globally defined compatible pure spinors Φ1 and Φ2 of non-vanishing norm. Furthermore, these pure spinors should satisfy certain first order differential equations. In this paper, we show that non-Abelian T-duality (NATD) is a solution generating transformation for these pure spinor equations. We first show that the pure spinor equations are covariant under Pin(d, d) transformations. Then, we use the fact NATD is generated by a coordinate dependent Pin(d, d) transformation. The key point is that the flux produced by this transformation is the same as the geometric flux associated with the isometry group, with respect to which one implements NATD. We demonstrate our method by studying NATD of certain solutions of Type IIB supergravity with SU(2) isometry and SU(3) structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demanding that charged Nariai black holes in (quasi-)de Sitter space decay without becoming super-extremal implies a lower bound on the masses of charged particles, known as the Festina Lente (FL) bound. In this paper we fix the O 1 constant in the bound and elucidate various aspects of it, as well as extensions to d > 4 and to situations with scalar potentials and dilatonic couplings. We also discuss phenomenological implications of FL including an explanation of why the Higgs potential cannot have a local minimum at the origin, thus explaining why the weak force must be broken. For constructions of meta-stable dS involving anti-brane uplift scenarios, even though the throat region is consistent with FL, the bound implies that we cannot have any light charged matter fields coming from any far away region in the compactified geometry, contrary to the fact that they are typically expected to arise in these scenarios. This strongly suggests that introduction of warped anti-branes in the throat cannot be decoupled from the bulk dynamics as is commonly assumed. Finally, we provide some evidence that in certain situations the FL bound can have implications even with gravity decoupled and illustrate this in the context of non-compact throats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that having an odd number of Majorana fermion zero modes on a dynamical point-like soliton signifies an inconsistency in a theory with 3+1 and higher dimensions. We check this statement in a couple of examples in field theory and in string/M theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for warped AdS2 solutions of Type II supergravity to preserve N = 1 supersymmetry, in terms of bispinors. Such solutions generically support an SU(3)-structure on their internal manifold M8, which can experience an enhancement to a G2-structure. We perform an SU(3)-structure torsion classes analysis and express the fluxes and other physical fields in terms of these, in general. We use our results to derive two new classes of AdS2 solutions. In (massive) Type IIA supergravity we derive an N = 1 supersymmetric class for which M8 decomposes as a weak G2-manifold foliated over an interval and which is locally defined in terms of a degree three polynomial. In Type IIB supergravity we find a class of AdS2 × S2 × CY2 × Σ2 solutions preserving small N = 4 supersymmetry, governed by a harmonic function on Σ2 and partial differential equations reminiscent of D3-D7-brane configurations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the notion of a metric over the space of AdS solution in string theory, leading to an associated distance between them. Such a distance is the idea underlying the AdS distance conjecture. We utilise the previously developed prescription for extracting such a metric: taking an off-shell quadratic variation of the string theory effective action and then evaluating it over the space of on-shell solutions. It was shown that this prescription leads to a well-defined positive metric over M-theory Freund-Rubin vacua. In this work, we use the same prescription to calculate the metric over type IIA DGKT vacua. These are much more involved, they have multiple flux parameters and exhibit scale separation. While it remains an open question whether these vacua exist as fully localised solutions of string theory, they are well-defined within the four-dimensional effective theory, which is all that is required for the calculation. We find that they also have a positive metric over them. Interestingly, this metric turns out to be independent of the many flux parameters in the solution, similarly to what happens for metrics over scalar field spaces. This non-trivial flux cancellation, as well as results from explicit vacua, lead us to propose a Swampland condition: that the metric over the space of vacua in quantum gravity, as defined by the above prescription, is always positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider phenomenological aspects of a natural class of Standard Model-like supersymmetric F-theory vacua realized through flux breaking of rigid E7 gauge factors. Three generations of Standard Model matter are realized in many of these vacua. We further find that many other Standard Model-like features are naturally compatible with these constructions. For example, dimension-4 and 5 terms associated with proton decay are ubiquitously suppressed. Many of these features are due to the group theoretical structure of E7 and associated F-theory geometry. In particular, a set of approximate global symmetries descends from the E7 group, leading to exponential suppression of undesired couplings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate how recent developments in string field theory provide a framework to systematically study type II flux compactifications with non-trivial Ramond-Ramond profiles. We present an explicit example where physical observables can be computed order by order in a small parameter which can be effectively viewed as string coupling constant. We obtain the corresponding background solution of the string field equations of motions up to the second order in the expansion. Along the way, we show how the tadpole cancellations of the string field equations lead to the minimization of the F-term potential of the low energy supergravity description. String field action expanded around the obtained background solution furnishes a “worldsheet” description of the flux compactifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study Euclidean M5-branes wrapping vertical divisors in elliptic Calabi-Yau fourfold compactifications of M/F-theory that admit a Sen limit. We construct these Calabi-Yau fourfolds as elliptic fibrations over coordinate flip O3/O7 orientifolds of toric hypersurface Calabi-Yau threefolds. We devise a method to analyze the Hodge structure (and hence the dimension of the intermediate Jacobian) of vertical divisors in these fourfolds, using only the data available from a type IIB compactification on the O3/O7 Calabi-Yau orientifold. Our method utilizes simple combinatorial formulae (that we prove) for the equivariant Hodge numbers of the Calabi-Yau orientifolds and their prime toric divisors, along with a formula for the Euler characteristic of vertical divisors in the corresponding elliptic Calabi-Yau fourfold. Our formula for the Euler characteristic includes a conjectured correction term that accounts for the contributions of pointlike terminal ℤ2 singularities corresponding to perturbative O3-planes. We check our conjecture in a number of explicit examples and find perfect agreement with the results of direct computations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We construct a new class of non-supersymmetric ten-dimensional type II flux vacua, by studying first order differential equations which are deformations of the = 1 supersymmetry conditions. We do so within the context of Generalised Complex Geometry, where there is a natural interpretation of the = 1 supersymmetry conditions in terms of calibration conditions for probe D-branes, called D-string, domain-wall or space-filling branes, depending on them wrapping two, three or four non-compact dimensions. We focus on the class of non-supersymmetric vacua violating the D-string calibration condition, and write down their general equations of motion in the language of pure spinors. We solve them for a subclass of vacua, where the deformation of the calibration condition is dictated by the foliated geometry of the internal space. We also construct backgrounds violating both the domain-wall and D-string calibration conditions, generalising the one-parameter DWSB class of backgrounds introduced in Lüst et al. We present several explicit solutions with SU(2) and SU(3) structures, and we investigate briefly their associated low energy effective theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the cosmological evolution of a FLRW universe dominated by the energy density of moduli close to asymptotic regions of moduli space. Due to the structure of the = 1 SUGRA kinetic term, a saxion and an axion residing in the same chiral multiplet are (universally) coupled even if the latter is a flat direction of the potential, resulting in non-trivial dynamics. We generalise known results in the literature to the case of multiple moduli, showing the existence of various “tracker” attractor solutions where the relative energy densities of many components (axions included) stay in a fixed ratio throughout the evolution. We conclude with some phenomenological applications, relevant for both the early and late universe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We derive major parts of the eigenvalue spectrum of the operators on the squashed seven-sphere that appear in the compactification of eleven-dimensional supergravity. These spectra determine the mass spectrum of the fields in AdS4 and are important for the corresponding N = 1 supermultiplet structure. This work is a continuation of the work in [1] where the complete spectrum of irreducible isometry representations of the fields in AdS4 was derived for this compactification. Some comments are also made concerning the G2 holonomy and its implications on the structure of the operator equations on the squashed seven-sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kinetic mixing between gauge fields of different U(1) factors is a well-studied phenomenon in 4d EFT. In string compactifications with U(1)s from sequestered D-brane sectors, kinetic mixing becomes a key target for the UV prediction of a phenomenologically important EFT operator. Surprisingly, in many cases kinetic mixing is absent due to a non-trivial cancellation. In particular, D3-D3 kinetic mixing in type-IIB vanishes while D3-anti-D3 mixing does not. This follows both from exact CFT calculations on tori as well as from a leading-order 10d supergravity analysis, where the key cancellation is between the C2 and B2 contribution. We take the latter approach, which is the only one available in realistic Calabi-Yau settings, to a higher level of precision by including sub-leading terms of the brane action and allowing for non-vanishing C0. The exact cancellation persists, which we argue to be the result of self-duality. We note that a B2C2 term on the D3-brane, which is often missing in the recent literature, is essential to obtain the correct zero result. Finally, allowing for -breaking fluxes, kinetic mixing between D3-branes arises at a volume-suppressed level. We provide basic explicit formulae, both for kinetic as well as magnetic mixing, leaving the study of phenomenologically relevant, more complex situations for the future. We also note that describing our result in 4d supergravity appears to require higher-derivative terms — an issue which deserves further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We define the notion of Y-algebroids, generalising the Lie, Courant, and exceptional algebroids that have been used to capture the local symmetry structure of type II string theory and M-theory compactifications to D ≥ 5 dimensions. Instead of an invariant inner product, or its generalisation arising in exceptional algebroids, Y-algebroids are built around a specific type of tensor, denoted Y , that provides exactly the necessary properties to also describe compactifications to D = 4 dimensions. We classify "M-exact" E7-algebroids and show that this precisely matches the form of the generalised tangent space of E7(7) × ℝ+-generalised geometry, with possible twists due to 1-, 4- and 7-form fluxes, corresponding physically to the derivative of the warp factor and the M-theory fluxes. We translate the notion of generalised Leibniz parallelisable spaces, relevant to consistent truncations, into this language, where they are mapped to so-called exceptional Manin pairs. We also show how to understand Poisson-Lie U-duality and exceptional complex structures using Y-algebroids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore a notion of distance between vacua of a discrete landscape that takes into account scalar potentials and fluxes via transitions mediated by domain walls. Such settings commonly arise in supergravity and string compactifications with stabilized moduli. We derive general bounds and simple estimates in supergravity which constrain deviations from the ordinary swampland distance conjecture based on moduli space geodesics, and we connect this picture to renormalization group flows via holography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The squashed seven-sphere operator spectrum is completed by deriving the spectrum of the spin-3/2 operator. The implications of the results for the AdS4 N = 1 supermultiplets obtained from compactification of eleven-dimensional supergravity are analysed. The weak G2 holonomy plays an important role when solving the eigenvalue equations on the squashed sphere. Here, a novel and more universal algebraic approach to the whole eigenvalue problem on coset manifolds is provided. Having obtained full control of all the operator spectra, we can finally determine the irreps D(E0, s) for all supermultiplets in the left-squashed vacuum. This includes an analysis of possible boundary conditions. By performing an orientation flip on the seven-sphere, we also obtain the full spectrum for the non-supersymmetric right-squashed compactification which is of interest in the swampland context and in particular for the AdS swampland conjecture. Here, a number of boundary condition ambiguities arise making the analysis of dual marginal operators somewhat involved. This work is a direct continuation of [1] and [2]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study bubble of nothing decays and their reverse processes, the creation of vacua through ‘bubbles of something’, in models of the Universe based on string theory. From the four-dimensional perspective, the corresponding gravitational instantons contain an end-of-the-world (ETW) boundary or brane, realized by the internal manifold shrinking to zero size. The existence of such ETW branes is predicted by the Cobordism Conjecture. We develop the 4d EFT description of such boundaries at three levels: first, by generalizing the Witten bubble through an additional defect. Second, by replacing the compact S1 with a Calabi-Yau orientifold and allowing it to shrink and disappear through a postulated defect. Third, we describe an ETW brane construction for type IIB Calabi-Yau orientifold compactifications with O3/O7 planes through an appropriate additional O5 orientifolding. Our 4d EFT formalism allows us to compute the decay/creation rates for bubbles of anything depending on two parameters: the size of the relevant defect and its tension a.k.a. the induced (generalized) deficit angle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The DGKT-CFI construction of AdS flux vacua in type IIA string theory has interesting features such as classical moduli stabilization and a parametric scale separation between the Hubble scale and the Kaluza-Klein scale. A possible worry regarding the consistency of these vacua is that pathologies could arise due to intersections of the O6-planes, which are not well understood in the 10D solution. In this note, we show in explicit examples that such intersections are absent if one compactifies on smooth Calabi-Yau manifolds instead of toroidal orbifolds. In particular, we show that the blow-up of the T6/ℤ3 orbifold yields a single O6-plane which wraps a smooth submanifold without any (self-)intersections. On the other hand, blowing up the T6/ ℤ 3 2 orbifold seems to yield an O6-plane which self-intersects. However, we show that this is due to an inconsistent orientifold involution in the original DGKT model. Imposing a consistent involution again yields a single smooth O6-plane without self-intersections on the blown-up manifold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study structures of solutions for SUSY Minkowski F-term equations on two toroidal orientifolds with h2,1 = 1. Following our previous study [1], with fixed upper bounds of a flux D3-brane charge Nflux, we obtain a whole Landscape and a distribution of degeneracies of physically-distinct solutions for each case. In contrast to our previous study, we consider a non-factorizable toroidal orientifold and its Landscape on which SL(2, ℤ) is violated into a certain congruence subgroup, as it had been known in past studies. We find that it is not the entire duality group that a complex-structure modulus U enjoys but its outer semi-direct product with a “scaling” outer automorphism group. The fundamental region is enlarged to include the |U| < 1 region. In addition, we find that high degeneracy is observed at an elliptic point, not of SL(2, Z) but of the outer automorphism group. Furthermore, ℤ2-enhanced symmetry is realized on the elliptic point. The outer automorphism group is exceptional in the sense that it is consistent with a symplectic basis transformation of background three-cycles, as opposed to the outer automorphism group of SL(2, ℤ). We also compare this result with Landscape of another factorizable toroidal orientifold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In a previous paper two of us (D.M. and A.Z.) proposed that a vast class of gravitational extremization problems in holography can be formulated in terms of the equivariant volume of the internal geometry, or of the cone over it. We substantiate this claim by analysing supergravity solutions corresponding to branes partially or totally wrapped on a four-dimensional orbifold, both in M-theory as well as in type II supergravities. We show that our approach recovers the relevant gravitational central charges/free energies of several known supergravity solutions and can be used to compute these also for solutions that are not known explicitly. Moreover, we demonstrate the validity of previously conjectured gravitational block formulas for M5 and D4 branes. In the case of M5 branes we make contact with a recent approach based on localization of equivariant forms, constructed with Killing spinor bilinears.

Abstract Moduli stabilisation in string compactifications with many light scalars remains a major blind-spot in the string landscape. In these regimes, analytic methods cease to work for generic choices of UV parameters which is why numerical techniques have to be exploited. In this paper, we implement algorithms based on JAX, heavily utilising automatic differentiation, just-in-time compilation and parallelisation features, to efficiently construct string vacua. This implementation provides a golden opportunity to efficiently analyse large unexplored regions of the string landscape. As a first example, we apply our techniques to the search of Type IIB flux vacua in Calabi-Yau orientifold compactifications. We argue that our methods only scale mildly with the Hodge numbers making exhaustive studies of low energy effective field theories with O $$ \mathcal{O} $$ (100) scalar fields feasible. Using small computing resources, we are able to construct O $$ \mathcal{O} $$ (106) flux vacua per geometry with h 1,2 ≥ 2, vastly out-performing previous systematic searches. In particular, we showcase the efficiency of our methods by presenting generic vacua with fluxes below the tadpole constraint set by the orientifold with up to h 1,2 = 25 complex structure moduli.

Abstract Anti-D3 branes at the bottom of warped throats, commonly used to uplift the cosmological constant in String-Theory de Sitter proposals, source a plethora of supersymmetry-breaking fluxes, that can interact nontrivially with other ingredients of the flux compactification. In this paper we perform a complex-structure decomposition of these fluxes, and compute the effect of the (0,3) flux component on the stabilization of Kähler moduli via D7-branes gaugino condensation. This allows us to obtain a new constraint on the validity of this stabilization mechanism. This effect does not appear hard to satisfy in de Sitter construction proposals that use long warped throats, but may be problematic in proposals where the warping is small.

Abstract In this paper we present a large class of flux backgrounds and solve the shortest vector problem in type IIB string theory on an orientifold of the 19 Landau-Ginzburg model.