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Recent no‐go theorems have ruled out four‐dimensional classical de Sitter vacua in heterotic string theory. On the other hand, the absence of a well‐defined Wilsonian effective action and other related phenomena also appear to rule out such time‐dependent vacua with de Sitter isometries, even in the presence of quantum corrections. In this note, the authors argued that a four‐dimensional de Sitter space can still exist in SO(32)$SO(32)$ heterotic string theory as a Glauber–Sudarshan state, i.e., as an excited state, over a supersymmetric Minkowski background, albeit within a finite temporal domain. Borel resummation and resurgence play a crucial role in constructing such a state in the Hilbert space of heterotic theory governed entirely by the IR degrees of freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the cosmological dynamics of a minimalistic yet generic string-inspired model for multifield dark energy. Adopting a supergravity four-dimensional viewpoint, we motivate the model's structure arising from superstring compactifications involving a chiral superfield and a pure U(1) gauge sector. The chiral sector gives rise to a pair of scalar fields, such as the axio-dilaton, which are kinetically coupled. However, the scalar potential depends on only one of them, further entwined with the vector field through the gauge kinetic function. The model has two anisotropic attractor solutions that, despite a steep potential and thanks to multifield dynamics, could explain the current accelerated expansion of the Universe while satisfying observational constraints on the late-times cosmological anisotropy. Nevertheless, justifying the parameter space allowing for slow roll dynamics together with the correct cosmological parameters, would be challenging within the landscape of string theory. Intriguingly, we find that the vector field, particularly at one of the studied fixed points, plays a crucial role in enabling geodesic trajectories in the scalar field space while realizing slow-roll dynamics with a steep potential. This observation opens a new avenue for exploring multifield dark energy models within the superstring landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supersymmetric elementary string states in the compactified heterotic string theory are described by small black holes that have zero area event horizon. In this paper we compute the supersymmetric index of such elementary string states using gravitational path integral. The dominant contribution to the path integral comes from an Euclidean rotating black hole solution of the supergravity theory with a finite area event horizon, but the logarithm of the index, computed from the saddle point, vanishes. Nevertheless we show that the solution is singular on certain subspaces of the horizon where higher derivative corrections can be important, and once the higher derivative corrections are taken into account the solution could yield a finite result for the logarithm of the index whose form agrees with the microscopic results up to an overall numerical constant. While the numerical constant is not determined in our analysis, we show that it is independent of the details of the compactification and even the number of non-compact dimensions, in agreement with the microscopic results. [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]

In this work we study interesting corners of the quantum gravity landscape with 8 supercharges pushing the boundaries of our current understanding. Calabi-Yau threefolds compactifications of F/M/type II theories to 6, 5 and 4 dimensions are the most prominent examples of this class, and these always lead to a universal hypermultiplet coming from the volume/string coupling constant. We find new examples of asymmetric orbifold constructions which have no hypermultiplets in 4 or 5 dimensions and no neutral hypers in 6d. We argue that these theories can also be obtained by going to strong coupling/small volume regions of geometric constructions where a new Coulomb branch opens up and moving in this direction freezes the volume/string coupling constant. Interestingly we find that the Kodaira condition encountered in geometric limits of F-theory compactifications to 6 dimensions is violated in these corners of the landscape due to strong quantum corrections. We also construct a theory in 3 dimensions which if it were to arise by toroidal compactifications from 5d, it would have to come from pure N = 1 supergravity with no massless scalar fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this note, we study 1/4- and 1/2-BPS co-dimension two superconformal defects in the 6d N = (2, 0) AN−1 SCFT at large N using their holographic descriptions as solutions of 11d supergravity. In this regime, we are able to compute the defect contribution to the sphere entanglement entropy and the change in the stress-energy tensor one-point function due to the presence of the defect using holography. From these quantities, we are then able to unambiguously compute the values for two of the twenty-nine total Weyl anomaly coefficients that characterize 4d conformal defects in six and higher dimensions. We are able to demonstrate the consistency of the supergravity description of the defect theories with the average null energy condition on the field theory side. For each class of defects that we consider, we also show that the A-type Weyl anomaly coefficient is non-negative. Lastly, we uncover and resolve a discrepancy between the on-shell action of the 7d 1/4-BPS domain wall solutions and that of their 11d uplift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The landscape of six-dimensional supergravities is dramatically constrained by the cancellation of gauge and gravitational anomalies, but the full extent of its implications has not been uncovered. We explore the cancellation of global anomalies of the Dai-Freed type in this setting with abelian and simply laced gauge groups, finding novel constraints. In particular, we exclude arbitrarily large abelian charges in an infinite family of theories for certain types of quadratic refinements, including a specific one defined in the literature. We also show that the Gepner orientifold with no tensor multiplets is anomaly-free for a different choice, as well as a number of heterotic models with and without spacetime supersymmetry in six dimensions. The latter analysis extends previous results in ten dimensions to some lower-dimensional settings in the heterotic landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show that the bosonic sector of the N = (1, 0), 6D Salam-Sezgin gauged supergravity model possesses a T-duality symmetry upon a circle reduction to D = 5. We then construct a simple magnetic rotating string solution with two equal angular momenta. Applying the T-duality transformation to this solution, we obtain the general boosted rotating dyonic black string solutions whose global structures and thermodynamic quantities are also analyzed. Owing to the fact that the solutions are not asymptotically flat, we find that there are two distinct globally-different non-extremal solutions with two different sets of thermal dynamic variables, with both satisfying the thermodynamic first law and the corresponding Small relations. However, their BPS limit becomes the same and we show that it preserves one quarter of supersymmetry by directly solving the corresponding Killing spinor equations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide a first principles derivation of the supersymmetric Casimir energy of N = 1 SCFTs in four dimensions using the supercharge algebra on general conformal supergravity backgrounds that admit Killing spinors. The superconformal Ward identities imply that there exists a continuous family of conserved R-currents on supersymmetric backgrounds, as well as a continuous family of conserved currents for each conformal Killing vector. These continuous families interpolate between the consistent and covariant R-current and energy-momentum tensor. The resulting Casimir energy, therefore, depends on two continuous parameters corresponding to the choice of conserved currents used to define the energy and R-charge. This ambiguity is in addition to any possible scheme dependence due to local terms in the effective action. As an application, we evaluate the general expression for the supersymmetric Casimir energy we obtain on a family of backgrounds with the cylinder topology ℝ × S3 and admitting a single Majorana supercharge. Our result is a direct consequence of the supersymmetry algebra, yet it resembles more known expressions for the non-supersymmetric Casimir energy on such backgrounds and differs from the supersymmetric Casimir energy obtained from the zero temperature limit of supersymmetric partition functions. We defer a thorough analysis of the relation between these results to future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the logarithmic corrections to various CFT partition functions in the context of the AdS4/CFT3 correspondence for theories arising on the worldvolume of M2-branes. We utilize four-dimensional gauged supergravity and heat kernel methods and present general expressions for the logarithmic corrections to the gravitational on-shell action and black hole entropy for a number of different supergravity backgrounds. We outline several subtle features of these calculations and contrast them with a similar analysis of logarithmic corrections performed directly in the eleven-dimensional uplift of a given four-dimensional supergravity background. We find results consistent with AdS/CFT provided that the infinite sum over KK modes on the internal space is regularized in a specific manner. This analysis leads to an explicit expression for the logarithmic correction to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of large Kerr-Newmann and Reissner-Nordström black holes in AdS4. Our results also have important implications for effective field theory coupled to gravity in AdS4 and for the existence of scale-separated AdS4 vacua in string theory, which come in the form of new constraints on the field content and mass spectrum of matter fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We continue the holographic exploration of the conformal manifold of 3d N = 2 S-fold SCFTs constructed by gauging the flavor symmetry of the Gaiotto-Witten T[U(N)] theory. We show how to uplift the two-parameter family of AdS4 vacua dual to this conformal manifold to 10d backgrounds of type IIB supergravity. We use these uplifted solutions to shed new light on the mysterious nature of the infinite distance limit on the conformal manifold and to study probe strings and D3-branes. This analysis uncovers an intriguing structure of the S3 partition function of the S-fold SCFTs which resembles the giant graviton expansion of the superconformal index of 4d N = 4 SYM. We also show how to each member of the family of supersymmetric AdS4 vacua one can associate a consistent truncation to 4d N = 2 gauged supergravity and use this result, in conjunction with holography, to calculate the large N partition function of the 3d S-fold SCFT on compact Euclidean manifolds. Finally, we generalize the supersymmetric AdS4 vacua to a four-parameter family of non-supersymmetric AdS4 solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spectral flow in two-dimensional superconformal field theories is known to correspond to a geometrical mixing between two circles in the gravity dual. We generalize this operation to the geometries which have SO(k+1)×SO(k+1) isometries with k > 1 and perform various non-abelian T-dualities of the resulting twisted backgrounds. Combination of non-abelian twists and dualities leads to a new solution generating technique in supergravity, and we apply it to the geometries dual to supersymmetric states in = 4 super-Yang-Mills theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work we present new solutions of type IIB supergravity based on wrapped D5 branes. We propose that two of these backgrounds are holographically dual to Quantum Field Theories that confine. The high energy regime of the field theories is that of a Little String Theory. We study various observables (Wilson and 't Hooft loops, Entanglement entropy, density of degrees of freedom and the spectrum of spin-two glueballs, among others). We also present two new black membrane backgrounds and analyse some thermodynamic aspects of these solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supertubes are supersymmetric configurations in string theory in which branes are extending along a closed curve. For a supertube of codimension two, its dipole charge is characterized by the duality monodromy around the closed curve. When multiple codimension-2 supertubes are present, the monodromies around different supertubes can be non-commuting, namely non-Abelian. Non-Abelian configurations of supertubes are expected to play an important role in non-perturbative physics of string theory, especially black holes. In this paper, in the framework of five-dimensional supergravity, we construct exact solutions describing codimension-2 supertubes in three-dimensional space. We use an extension formula to construct a three-dimensional solution from a two-dimensional seed solution. The two-dimensional seed is an F-theory like configuration in which a torus is nontrivially fibered over a complex plane. In the first example, there is a stack of circular supertubes around which there is a non-trivial monodromy. In some cases this can be thought of as a microstate of a black hole in AdS2 × S2. The second example is an axi-symmetric solution with two stacks of circular supertubes with non-Abelian monodromies. In addition, there is a continuous distribution of charges on the symmetry axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider type IIB string theory on an AdS5 × S5/ℤ2 orbifold background, which should be dual to 4d N = 2 superconformal SU(N) × SU(N) gauge theory with two bi-fundamental hypermultiplets. The correlator of two chiral BPS operators from the twisted sector of this quiver CFT exhibits non-trivial dependence on the 't Hooft coupling λ already in the planar limit. This dependence was recently determined using localisation and the expansion at large λ contains a subleading contribution proportional to ζ(3)λ−3/2. We address the question of how to reproduce this correction on the string theory side by starting with the ζ(3)α′3 term in the type IIB string effective action. We find a regular solution of type IIB supergravity which represents a resolution of the AdS5 × S5/ℤ2 orbifold and demonstrate that the relevant light twisted sector states may be identified as additional supergravity 2-form modes "wrapping" a finite 2-cycle in the resolution space. Reproducing the structure of the gauge theory result becomes more transparent in the large R-charge or BMN-like limit in which the resolved background takes a pp-wave form with the transverse space being a product of ℝ4 and the Eguchi-Hanson space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among about a thousand objects obtained by the Science Museum from Stephen Hawking's office is a blackboard full of cartoons and puns, both childishly silly and deeply scientifically meaningful. This blackboard is now one of the Museum's most popular objects thanks to its playful imagery and perhaps also its perceived fragility. But it is also one of the objects that best illustrates the scientific life of Stephen Hawking and his generation, and more broadly, it is an exemplar of the social and material culture of the postmodern epoch of theoretical physics in the decades around the turn of the twenty-first century. In this article, the curator of the Hawking Collection explains the importance of this blackboard, first through an account of its unexpected trajectory to becoming the Hawking Collection's most charismatic object, followed by a discussion of the general historical role of blackboards: their iconography, material culture, and value as historical sources and how their conservation requirements contribute to their perceived value. The author then delves deeper into the specific content of this blackboard, showing how it constitutes a window into the highs and lows of a generation of physicists inspired by Hawking's work, as they attempted, and ultimately failed, to unify the two great theories of the twentieth century: general relativity and quantum mechanics. What we now call the superspace and supergravity blackboard is a microcosm of one of those moments in physics when theory broke away from what was empirically verifiable. The scribblings on the blackboard were collectively drawn by an up-and-coming generation of supersymmetry theorists. It immortalises the promising early years of supergravity, one of the hopeful candidates at the time for the long-wished-for Theory of Everything. Preserved in chalk are the seeds of one of the most brilliant theoretical discoveries of the turn of the century: what is now called the holographic principle. But also, seen with the benefit of hindsight, supersymmetric approaches seeded the identity crisis that theoretical physics is experiencing today, especially around the role of empirical anchoring of proposed fundamental theories. The contested status of the blackboard's content and its humorous, self-ironic style, make it a key piece of a unique zeitgeist of physics at the turn of the twenty-first century, which one could call the era of postmodern physics. In addition to its significance to the history of specific ideas, this paper also argues that the blackboard reflects the collective, social nature of theoretical research, while also inviting reflection on what constitutes success and failure in the physical sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large classes of multi‐center supergravity solutions have been constructed in the study of supersymmetric black holes and their microstates. Many smooth multi‐center solutions have the same charges as supersymmetric black holes, with all centers deep inside a long black‐hole‐like throat. These configurations are constrained by regularity, absence of closed timelike curves, and charge quantization. Due to these constraints, constructing explicit solutions with several centers in generic arrangements, and with all parameters in physically relevant ranges, is a hard task. In this work, an optimization algorithm, based on evolutionary algorithms and Bayesian optimization is presented, that systematically constructs numerical solutions satisfying all constraints. Explicit examples of novel five‐center and seven‐center machine‐precision solutions are exhibited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

These lecture notes provide a pedagogical introduction, with exercises, to the techniques used in attempts to construct vacua with stabilized moduli in string theory. The reader is only assumed to have a basic knowledge of general relativity, geometry and field theory. We emphasize physical arguments and focus on the latest developments involving the Swampland program that point to a tension for the existence of AdS vacua with small extra dimensions or dS vacua with parametric control. We include a brief summary of the current status of these thorny issues. Unlike many other reviews we make almost no use of the technicalities associated to supersymmetric geometries. These notes are largely based on lectures given at the CERN Winter School on Supergravity, Strings and Gauge Theory and in the Tehran School on Swampland Program held in the summer of 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We reconstruct type II supergravities by using building blocks of O (d) × O (d) invariants. These invariants are obtained by explicitly analyzing O (d) × O (d) transformations of 10 dimensional massless fields. Similar constructions are performed by employing double field theory or generalized geometry, but we completed the reconstruction within the framework of the supergravities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we investigate the supersymmetric c = 1 model of superstring theory and demonstrate how the spectrum of states is expanded and new symmetries of the theory are generated by the existence of ghost cohomologies. As a result, we establish significant connections between two-dimensional supergravity and physical theories in higher dimensions. Additionally, we provide a comprehensive guide for constructing BRST-invariant and nontrivial vertex operators and carry out explicit computations to determine the correction terms needed to maintain the BRST invariance of the corresponding currents.

The concept of torsion in geometry, although known for a long time, has not gained considerable attention from the physics community until relatively recently, due to its diverse and potentially important applications to a plethora of contexts of physical interest. These range from novel materials, such as graphene and graphene-like materials, to advanced theoretical ideas, such as string theory and supersymmetry/supergravity, and applications thereof in terms of understanding the dark sector of our Universe. This work reviews such applications of torsion at different physical scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Euclidean Wilson loops for BMN Plane Wave Matrix Models is computed. The stringy counterpart of these Wilson loops corresponds to various semi‐classical open string embedding that probe a class of half BPS geometries in Type IIA supergravity. These geometries fall under the general category of Lin‐Lunin and Maldacena (LLM). As a special class of solutions within the LLM category, Wilson operators corresponding to the non‐Abelian T dual (NATD) of AdS5×S5$ AdS_5 \times S^5$ is constructed. The analysis shows close agreement between matrix model and string theory calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compute the first-order α′ corrections to a family of 4-dimensional, 4-charge, non-extremal black hole solutions of Heterotic Supergravity in the case with 3 independent charges. The solutions are fully analytic, reproduce the extremal limit previously found in the literature and, applying T-duality, they transform as expected. If we reduce to the case with a single independent charge we obtain the corrections to four embeddings of the Reissner-Nordström black hole in string theory. We completely characterize the black hole thermodynamics computing the Hawking temperature, Wald entropy, mass, gauge charges and their dual thermodynamic potentials. We verify that all these quantities are related by the first law of extended black hole mechanics and the Smarr formula once we include a potential associated to the dimensionful parameter α′ and the scalar charges. We found that the latter are not identified with the poles at infinity of the scalar fields because they receive α′ corrections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use E8(8) Exceptional Field Theory to construct the consistent truncation of IIB supergravity on S3× S3× S1 to maximal 3-dimensional N = 16 gauged supergravity containing the N = (4, 4) AdS3 vacuum. We explain how to achieve this by adding a 7-form flux to the S1 reduction of the dyonic E7(7) truncation on S3× S3 previously constructed in the literature. Our truncation Ansatz includes, in addition to the N = (4, 4) vacuum, a host of moduli breaking some or all of the supersymmetries. We explicitly construct the uplift of a subset of these to construct new supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric AdS3 vacua of IIB string theory, which include a range of perturbatively stable non-supersymmetric 10-d vacua. Moreover, we show how the supersymmetric direction of the moduli space of AdS3 vacua of six-dimensional gauged supergravity studied in [1] is compactified upon lifting to 10 dimensions, and find evidence of T-duality playing a role in global aspects of the moduli space. Along the way, we also derive the form of 3-dimensional N = 16 gauged supergravity in terms of the embedding tensor and rule out a 10-/11-dimensional origin of some 3-dimensional gauged supergravities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use E8(8) Exceptional Field Theory to construct the consistent truncation of IIB supergravity on S3× S3× S1 to maximal 3-dimensional N = 16 gauged supergravity containing the N = (4, 4) AdS3 vacuum. We explain how to achieve this by adding a 7-form flux to the S1 reduction of the dyonic E7(7) truncation on S3× S3 previously constructed in the literature. Our truncation Ansatz includes, in addition to the N = (4, 4) vacuum, a host of moduli breaking some or all of the supersymmetries. We explicitly construct the uplift of a subset of these to construct new supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric AdS3 vacua of IIB string theory, which include a range of perturbatively stable non-supersymmetric 10-d vacua. Moreover, we show how the supersymmetric direction of the moduli space of AdS3 vacua of six-dimensional gauged supergravity studied in [1] is compactified upon lifting to 10 dimensions, and find evidence of T-duality playing a role in global aspects of the moduli space. Along the way, we also derive the form of 3-dimensional N = 16 gauged supergravity in terms of the embedding tensor and rule out a 10-/11-dimensional origin of some 3-dimensional gauged supergravities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early Dark Energy (EDE) is a prominent model to resolve the Hubble tension, which employs a dynamical axion with a periodic potential. In this work, we take first steps towards the embedding of this model into stable compactifications of string theory. First, we provide a pedagogical review of the EDE scenario and its main challenges. Second, we construct a simple supergravity toy model using only minimal ingredients. Already at this level, we can understand the origin of the harmonics of the EDE scalar potential in terms of a delicate balance of the leading terms from separate non-perturbative effects. Third and final, we embed the model into a KKLT-type compactification, with the EDE scalar field realized by a two-form axion. We find that a successful embedding, with all moduli stabilized, requires restrictive assumptions, which are lacking at present a known string theory implementation mechanism, both on the Pfaffians and on the exponents of the non-perturbative terms responsible for the EDE dynamics. We point out that such non-generic conditions reflect well known challenges of the EDE model and further investigation might guide us towards a conclusive resolution. An alternative viewpoint suggests that rather than serving as the foundation for a string theory embedding, these conditions might instead indicate that EDE is, in fact, incompatible with string theory, at least in the realizations we study here. Further investigation will be needed to ascertain the status of EDE in string theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use the quantum spectral curve to compute the Hagedorn temperature for ABJM theory in terms of the interpolating function h(λ). At weak coupling we compute this temperature up to eight-loop order, showing that it matches the known tree-level and two-loop results. At strong coupling we compute the dependence numerically, showing that it is consistent with expectations from supergravity and the plane-wave limit for the four leading terms in the strong coupling expansion, up to an overall shift of the zero-point energy for type IIA string theory on AdS4 × ℂP3. We conjecture an analytic form for this shift to leading order that is consistent with our numerical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the process of vacuum decay in supersymmetric models related to flux compactifications. In particular, we describe these instabilities within supersymmetric Lagrangians for a single three-form multiplet. This multiplet combines scalar fields, representing the moduli fields in four dimensions, with 3-form fields that influence the potential for these moduli via the integer flux of their associated 4-form field strength. Furthermore, using supersymmetry as a guide we obtain the form of the couplings of these fields to the membranes that act as sources to the 3-form potentials. Adding small supersymmetry breaking terms to these Lagrangians one can obtain instanton solutions describing the decay of the vacua in these models by the formation of a membrane bubble. These instantons combine the usual Coleman-de Luccia and the Brown-Teitelboim formalisms in a single unified model. We study simple numerical examples of theories with and without gravity in this new framework and generalize known Euclidean methods to accomodate the simulataneous inclusion of scalar fields and charged membranes to these instanton solutions. Moreover, we show explicitly in these examples how one recovers the static supersymmetric solutions in the limiting case where the supersymmetry breaking terms vanish. In this limit, the bubble becomes infinite and flat and represents a hybrid between the usual supersymmetric domain walls of field theory models and the brane solutions interpolating between the supersymmetric vacua; a sort of dressed supermembrane BPS solution. Finally, we briefly comment on the implications of these solutions in cosmological models based on the String Theory Landscape where these type of 4d effective theories could be relevant in inflationary scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the analytic structure of the heavy-heavy-light-light holographic correlators in the supergravity approximation of the AdS3 × S3/CFT2 duality. As an explicit example, we derive the correlator where the heavy operator is a classical microstate of the 5D supersymmetric black hole and its dual geometry interpolates as a function of a continuous parameter between global AdS3 and the extremal BTZ black hole. The simplest perturbation of this interpolating geometry by a light field is described by the Heun equation and we exploit the relation of its connection coefficients to the Liouville CFT to analytically compute the correlator in the two limits, focusing in particular on the black hole regime. In this limit we find that the real poles of the correlator become dense and can be approximated by a cut. We show that, when the charges of the heavy state are in the black hole regime, the discontinuity across the cut has complex poles corresponding to the quasi-normal modes of BTZ. This behaviour is qualitatively similar to what is expected for the large central charge limit of a typical black hole microstate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We reformulate the question of the absence of global anomalies of heterotic string theory mathematically in terms of a certain natural transformation TMF ∙ → (I Z Ω string) ∙ - 20 , from topological modular forms to the Anderson dual of string bordism groups, using the Segal–Stolz–Teichner conjecture. We will show that this natural transformation vanishes, implying that heterotic global anomalies are always absent. The fact that TMF 21 (pt) = 0 plays an important role in the process. Along the way, we also discuss how the twists of TMF can be described under the Segal–Stolz–Teichner conjecture, by using the result of Freed and Hopkins concerning anomalies of quantum field theories. The paper contains separate introductions for mathematicians and for string theorists, in the hope of making the content more accessible to a larger audience. The sections are also demarcated cleanly into mathematically rigorous parts and those which are not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We determine the d + 1 dimensional topological field theory, which encodes the higher-form symmetries and their 't Hooft anomalies for d-dimensional QFTs obtained by compactifying M-theory on a non-compact space X. The resulting theory, which we call the Symmetry TFT, or SymTFT for short, is derived by reducing the topological sector of 11d supergravity on the boundary ∂ X of the space X. Central to this endeavour is a reformulation of supergravity in terms of differential cohomology, which allows the inclusion of torsion in cohomology of the space ∂ X , which in turn gives rise to the background fields for discrete (in particular higher-form) symmetries. We apply this framework to 7d super-Yang Mills, where X = C 2 / Γ ADE , as well as the Sasaki–Einstein links of Calabi–Yau three-fold cones that give rise to 5d superconformal field theories. This M-theory analysis is complemented with a IIB 5-brane web approach, where we derive the SymTFTs from the asymptotics of the 5-brane webs. Our methods apply to both Lagrangian and non-Lagrangian theories, and allow for many generalisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the S1 × Σ g topologically twisted index and the squashed sphere partition function of various 3d N ≥ 2 holographic superconformal field theories arising from M2-branes. Employing numerical techniques in combination with well-motivated conjectures we provide compact closed-form expressions valid to all orders in the perturbative 1/N expansion for these observables. We also discuss the holographic implications of our results for the topologically twisted index for the dual M-theory Euclidean path integral around asymptotically AdS4 solutions of 11d supergravity. In Lorentzian signature this leads to a prediction for the corrections to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of a class of static asymptotically AdS4 BPS black holes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study freely acting orbifolds of type IIB string theory on T5 that spontaneously break supersymmetry from N = 8 to N = 6, 4, 2 or 0 in five dimensions. We focus on orbifolds that are a ℤp quotient by a T-duality acting on T4 and a shift on the remaining S1. Modular invariant partition functions are constructed and detailed examples of both symmetric and asymmetric orbifolds are presented, including new examples of five-dimensional non-supersymmetric string theories with no tachyons. The orbifolds we consider arise at special points in the moduli space of string theory compactifications with a duality twist. The supergravity limit of these are Scherk-Schwarz reductions which generate gauged supergravities with positive definite classical potentials on the moduli space in five dimensions. Both symmetric and asymmetric freely acting orbifolds give a landscape of Minkowski vacua. For gauged supergravities to belong to this landscape, we find a number of constraints and conditions. Firstly, the scalar potential should lead to a massive spectrum with masses that obey quantization conditions arising from a string theory orbifold, which we discuss in detail. Secondly, we find constraints on the massless sector, e.g. in the examples of orbifolds preserving sixteen supersymmetries in five dimensions that we consider, only an odd number of vector multiplets arises. Lastly, we present new examples of candidate asymmetric orbifolds with modular invariant partition functions, but with non-integral coefficients in the q q ¯ -expansion in the twisted sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the construction of several microstate geometries of the supersymmetric D1-D5-P black hole in which, within six-dimensional supergravity, the momentum charge is carried by a vector field. The fully backreacted geometries are smooth and horizonless: they are asymptotically AdS3 × S3 with an AdS2 throat that smoothly caps off. We propose a holographic dual for these bulk solutions and discuss their extension to asymptotically flat space. In addition, we present several uplifts of the full six-dimensional supersymmetric ansatz to ten-dimensions. In particular, we show that there exists a frame in which geometries based on vector field momentum carriers are entirely in the NS-NS sector, making them possible starting points for the exploration of stringy black-hole microstates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study freely acting orbifolds of type IIB string theory on T5 that spontaneously break supersymmetry from N = 8 to N = 6, 4, 2 or 0 in five dimensions. We focus on orbifolds that are a ℤp quotient by a T-duality acting on T4 and a shift on the remaining S1. Modular invariant partition functions are constructed and detailed examples of both symmetric and asymmetric orbifolds are presented, including new examples of five-dimensional non-supersymmetric string theories with no tachyons. The orbifolds we consider arise at special points in the moduli space of string theory compactifications with a duality twist. The supergravity limit of these are Scherk-Schwarz reductions which generate gauged supergravities with positive definite classical potentials on the moduli space in five dimensions. Both symmetric and asymmetric freely acting orbifolds give a landscape of Minkowski vacua. For gauged supergravities to belong to this landscape, we find a number of constraints and conditions. Firstly, the scalar potential should lead to a massive spectrum with masses that obey quantization conditions arising from a string theory orbifold, which we discuss in detail. Secondly, we find constraints on the massless sector, e.g. in the examples of orbifolds preserving sixteen supersymmetries in five dimensions that we consider, only an odd number of vector multiplets arises. Lastly, we present new examples of candidate asymmetric orbifolds with modular invariant partition functions, but with non-integral coefficients in the q q ¯ -expansion in the twisted sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We construct and study several examples of continuous families of AdS4 N = 1 solutions of four-dimensional maximal gauged supergravity. These backgrounds provide the holographic descriptions of conformal manifolds of the dual 3d N = 1 SCFTs. The solutions we study can be uplifted to type IIB supergravity where they arise from D3-branes wrapping an S1 with an S-duality twist. We find the spectrum of low lying operators in the 3d N = 1 SCFTs as a function of the exactly marginal coupling and discuss the structure of the corresponding superconformal multiplets. Using string theory techniques we also study additional examples of continuous families of N = 1 AdS4 vacua in type IIB and massive type IIA supergravity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We begin to develop the formalism of localization for the functional integral of supergravity on AdS3× S2. We show how the condition of supersymmetry in the Euclidean ℍ3/ℤ × S2 geometry naturally leads to a twist of the S2 around the time direction of AdS3. The twist gives us a five-dimensional Euclidean supergravity background dual to the elliptic genus of (0, 4) SCFT2 at the semiclassical level. On this background we set up the off-shell BPS equations for one of the Killing spinors, such that the functional integral of five-dimensional Euclidean supergravity on ℍ3/ℤ × S2 localizes to its space of solutions. We obtain a class of solutions to these equations by lifting known off-shell BPS solutions of 4-dimensional supergravity on AdS2× S2. In order to do this consistently, we construct and use a Euclidean version of the off-shell 4d/5d lift of arXiv:1112.5371, which could be of independent interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We construct large families of supergravity solutions that are asymptotic to AdS2 and terminate with a cap that is singular in two dimensions but smooth in higher dimensions. These solutions break supersymmetry and conformal invariance. We list arguments suggesting that they correspond to finite-energy excitations in empty AdS2 that back-react on the geometry by inducing non-trivial bubbling topology. They are constructed from the novel technique associated with the Ernst formalism for AdSD × 풞 solitons in supergravity [1]. The technique is applied to D = 2 in M-theory with 풞 = S3 × T6. The directions of 풞 degenerate smoothly as a chain of bolts which ends the spacetime in the IR and generates non-supersymmetric bubbles supported by M2-brane flux. Some specific solutions have "flat" directions where the sizes of their bubbles are totally unconstrained and can be arbitrarily tuned while the asymptotics remains fixed. The solitons should correspond to regular non-supersymmetric states of a holographically dual CFT1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the compactification of the 풩 = 2 AdS5 consistent truncation of the conifold, in presence of a Betti vector multiplet, on the spindle. We derive the BPS equations and solve them at the poles, computing the central charge for both the twist and the anti-twist class, turning on the magnetic charge associated to the baryonic symmetry. Then, in the anti-twist class, where there are choices of the quantized flux that give origin to a positive central charge, we numerically solve the BPS equations interpolating between the poles of the spindle. We conclude by comparing our results with the one obtained from the analysis of the dual field theory, finding an exact agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider explicit examples of nonabelian fermionic T-duality acting on the fundamental string as the type- II supergravity background with a nonvanishing field. In this case, the nonabelian fermionic T-duality is understood as a symmetry of the double field theory equations of motion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We construct large families of supergravity solutions that are asymptotic to AdS2 and terminate with a cap that is singular in two dimensions but smooth in higher dimensions. These solutions break supersymmetry and conformal invariance. We list arguments suggesting that they correspond to finite-energy excitations in empty AdS2 that back-react on the geometry by inducing non-trivial bubbling topology. They are constructed from the novel technique associated with the Ernst formalism for AdSD × 풞 solitons in supergravity [1]. The technique is applied to D = 2 in M-theory with 풞 = S3 × T6. The directions of 풞 degenerate smoothly as a chain of bolts which ends the spacetime in the IR and generates non-supersymmetric bubbles supported by M2-brane flux. Some specific solutions have "flat" directions where the sizes of their bubbles are totally unconstrained and can be arbitrarily tuned while the asymptotics remains fixed. The solitons should correspond to regular non-supersymmetric states of a holographically dual CFT1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We reconstruct type II supergravities by using building blocks of O(d)×O(d) invariants. These invariants are obtained by explicitly analyzing O(d)×O(d) transformations of 10 dimensional massless fields. Similar constructions are performed by employing double field theory or generalized geometry, but we completed the reconstruction within the framework of the supergravities.

We study whether the universal runaway behaviour of stringy scalar potentials towards infinite field distance limits can produce an accelerated expanding cosmology à la quintessence. We identify a loophole to some proposed bounds that forbid such asymptotic (at parametric control) accelerated expansion in 4d N = 1 supergravities, by considering several terms of the potential competing asymptotically. We then analyse concrete string theory examples coming from F-theory flux compactifications on Calabi-Yau fourfolds, extending previous results by going beyond weak string coupling to different infinite distance limits in the complex structure moduli space. We find some potential candidates to yield asymptotic accelerated expansion with a flux potential satisfying γ = ‖ ∇ V ‖ V < 2 along its gradient flow. However, whether this truly describes an accelerated expanding cosmology remains as an open question until full moduli stabilization including the Kahler moduli is studied. Finally, we also reformulate the condition for forbidding asymptotic accelerated expansion as a convex hull de Sitter conjecture which resembles a convex hull scalar WGC for the membranes generating the flux potential. This provides a pictorial way to quickly determine the asymptotic gradient flow trajectory in multi-moduli setups and the value of γ along it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small black holes are a powerful tool to explore infinite distances in moduli spaces. However, we show that in 4d theories with a scalar potential growing fast enough at infinity, it is energetically too costly for scalars to diverge at the core, and the small black hole puffs up into a regular black hole, or follows a runaway behaviour. We derive a critical exponent characterizing the occurrence or not of such small black hole explosions, both from a 4d perspective, and in the 2d theory after an S2 truncation. The latter setup allows a unified discussion of fluxes, domain walls and black holes, solving an apparent puzzle in the expression of their potentials in the 4d N = 2 gauged supergravity context. We discuss the realization of these ideas in 4d N = 2 gauged supergravities. Along the way we show that many regular black hole supergravity solutions in the literature in the latter context are incomplete, due to Freed-Witten anomalies (or duals thereof), and require the emission of strings by the black hole. From the 2d perspective, small black hole solutions correspond to dynamical cobordisms, with the core describing an end of the world brane. Small black hole explosions represent obstructions to completing the dynamical cobordism. We study the implications for the Cobordism Distance Conjecture, which states that in any theory there should exist dynamical cobordisms accessing all possible infinite distance limits in scalar field space. The realization of this principle using small black holes leads to non-trivial constraints on the 4d scalar potential of any consistent theory; in the 4d N = 2 context, they allow to recover from a purely bottom-up perspective, several non-trivial properties of vector moduli spaces near infinity familiar from CY3 compactifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the vacua of the scalar potential of the effective 4‐d action, obtained after the dimensional reduction of the 10‐d N=1$\mathcal {N}=1$ heterotic supergravity coupled to an N=1$\mathcal {N}=1$ Yang‐Mills sector. The (Coset Space) dimensional reduction takes place over the three 6‐d nearly‐Kähler manifolds, namely the homogeneous 6‐d non‐symmetric coset spaces, G2/SU(3)$G_2/SU(3)$, Sp4/SU(2)×U(1)$Sp_4/SU(2)\times U(1)$ and SU(3)/U(1)×U(1)$SU(3)/U(1)\times U(1)$. The current work consists a complete catalogue of the kinds of vacua of theories obtained after the reduction of the heterotic string over the 6‐d non‐symmetric coset spaces and, moreover, a contribution to the dialogue of the possibility to result with non‐AdS vacua in the framework of string theories. We examine the vacua of the scalar potential of the effective 4‐d action, obtained after the dimensional reduction of the 10‐d N=1$\mathcal {N}=1$ heterotic supergravity coupled to an N=1$\mathcal {N}=1$ Yang‐Mills sector. The (Coset Space) dimensional reduction takes place over the three 6‐d nearly‐Kähler manifolds, namely the homogeneous 6‐d non‐symmetric coset spaces, G2/SU(3)$G_2/SU(3)$, Sp4/SU(2)×U(1)$Sp_4/SU(2)\times U(1)$. The current work consists a complete catalogue of the kinds of vacua of theories obtained after the reduction of the heterotic string over the 6‐d non‐symmetric coset spaces and, moreover, a contribution to the dialogue of the possibility to result with non‐AdS vacua in the framework of string theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue for a relation between the supersymmetry breaking scale and the measured value of the dark energy density Λ. We derive it by combining two quantum gravity consistency swampland constraints, which tie the dark energy density Λ and the gravitino mass M3/2, respectively, to the mass scale of a light Kaluza-Klein tower and, therefore, to the UV cut-off of the effective theory. Whereas the constraint on Λ has recently led to the Dark Dimension scenario, with a prediction of a single mesoscopic extra dimension of the micron size, we use the constraint on M3/2 to infer the implications of such a scenario for the scale of supersymmetry breaking. We find that a natural scale for supersymmetry signatures is M = O Λ 1 8 = O TeV. This mass scale is within reach of LHC and of the next generation of hadron colliders. Finally, we discuss possible string theory and effective supergravity realizations of the Dark Dimension scenario with broken supersymmetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We revisit and extend the correspondence between black holes, domain walls and fluxes in type IIA compactifications. We argue that these three systems can be described by the same supergravity effective action, modulo proper identifications and adjustments. Then, we apply the correspondence to investigate swampland conjectures on de Sitter and anti-de Sitter vacua, as well as on the black hole entropy. We show that, in certain cases, swampland conjectures can be motivated from properties of black hole solutions, such as positiveness of the entropy. This provides a bottom-up rationale which is complementary to the usual tests in string theory. When asking for an agreement between the anti-de Sitter and the black hole entropy distance conjectures, we are led to an extension of the correspondence which includes geometric fluxes and the associated Kaluza-Klein monopoles domain walls. Finally, we point out that the anti-de Sitter distance conjecture is naturally implemented in certain asymptotically anti-de Sitter black holes as a consequence of a constraint involving black hole charges and supergravity gauge couplings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use consistent truncations in supergravity to show that the backreaction of N rotating M5-branes wrapped on a Riemann surface leads to asymptotically AdS5 black hole solutions of 11d supergravity. We discuss the thermodynamic properties of these black holes focusing on their supersymmetric limit. The Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of the supersymmetric black holes scales as N3 and can be reproduced by the superconformal index of the holographically dual 4d N = 1 SCFTs of class S . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyse the shifted hybrid inflation in a no-scale supersymmetric SU(5) GUT model which naturally circumvents the monopole problem. The no-scale framework is derivable as the effective field theory of the supersymmetric (SUSY) compactifications of string theory, and yields a flat potential with no anti-de Sitter vacua, resolving the η problem. The model predicts a scalar spectral tilt ns compatible with the most recent measurements by the Planck satellite, while also accommodating large values of the tensor-to-scalar ratio r (~ 0.0015), potentially measurable by the near-future experiments. Moreover, the proton decay lifetime in the presence of the dimension-5 operators is found to lie above the current limit imposed by the Super-Kamiokande experiment. A realistic scenario of reheating and non-thermal leptogenesis is employed, wherein the reheating temperature Tr lies in the (2 × 106 ≲ Tr ≲ 2 × 109) GeV range, and at the same time realizing gravitino as a viable dark matter (DM) candidate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the Borel summation of the Gromov–Witten potential for the resolved conifold. The Stokes phenomena associated to this Borel summation are shown to encode the Donaldson–Thomas (DT) invariants of the resolved conifold, having a direct relation to the Riemann–Hilbert problem formulated by Bridgeland (Invent Math 216(1), 69–124, 2019). There exist distinguished integration contours for which the Borel summation reproduces previous proposals for the non-perturbative topological string partition functions of the resolved conifold. These partition functions are shown to have another asymptotic expansion at strong topological string coupling. We demonstrate that the Stokes phenomena of the strong-coupling expansion encode the DT invariants of the resolved conifold in a second way. Mathematically, one finds a relation to Riemann–Hilbert problems associated to DT invariants which is different from the one found at weak coupling. The Stokes phenomena of the strong-coupling expansion turn out to be closely related to the wall-crossing phenomena in the spectrum of BPS states on the resolved conifold studied in the context of supergravity by Jafferis and Moore (Wall crossing in local Calabi Yau manifolds, arXiv:0810.4909, 2008). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]