A Strong Scalar Weak Gravity Conjecture and some implications

We propose a new version of the scalar Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) which would apply to any scalar field coupled to quantum gravity. For a single scalar it is given by the differential constraint (V″)2 ≤ (2V‴2 − V″V′′′′)Mp2, where V is the scalar potential. It corresponds to the statement that self-interactions of a scalar must be stronger than gravity for any value of the scalar field. We find that the solutions which saturate the bound correspond to towers of extremal states with mass m2(ϕ)=m02/((R/m)2+1/(nR)2), with R2 = eϕ, consistent with the emergence of an extra dimension at large or small R and the existence of extended objects (strings). These states act as WGC states for the scalar ϕ. It is also consistent with the distance swampland conjecture with a built-in duality symmetry. All of this is remarkable since neither extra dimensions nor string theory are put in the theory from the beginning, but they emerge. This is quite analogous to how the 11-th dimension appears in M-theory from towers of Type IIA solitonic D0-branes. From this constraint one can derive several swampland conjectures from a single principle. In particular one finds that an axion potential is only consistent if f ≤ Mp, recovering a result already conjectured from other arguments. The conjecture has far reaching consequences and applies to several interesting physical systems: i) Among chaotic inflation potentials only those asymptotically linear may survive. ii) If applied to the radion of the circle compactification of the Standard Model to 3D with Dirac neutrinos, the constraint implies that the 4D cosmological constant scale must be larger than the mass of the lightest neutrino, which must be in normal hierarchy. It also puts a constraint on the EW scale, potentially explaining the hierarchy problem. This recovers and improves results already obtained by applying the AdS swampland conjecture, but in a way which is independent from UV physics. iii) It also constraints simplest moduli fixing string models. The simplest KKLT model is compatible with the constraints but the latter may be relevant for some choices of parametersThis work has been supported by the ERC Advanced Grant SPLE under contract ERC-2012-ADG-20120216-320421, by the grants FPA2016-78645-P and FPA2015-65480-P from the MINECO, and the grant SEV-2016-0597 of the “Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa” Programme. E.G. is supported by the Spanish FPU Grant No. FPU16/0398

On scale separation in type II AdS flux vacua

We study the separation of AdS and Kaluza-Klein (KK) scales in type II 4d AdS orientifold vacua. We first address this problem in toroidal/orbifold type IIA vacua with metric fluxes, corresponding to compactifications in twisted tori, both from the 4d and 10d points of view. We show how the naive application of the effective 4d theory leads to results which violate the AdS distance conjecture, in a class of N = 1 supersymmetric models which have a 10d lifting to a compactification on S3× S3. We show how using KK scales properly modified by the compact metric leads to no separationof scales with MKK2=c|Λ|, with c a numerical constant independent of fluxes. This applies with no need to keep non-leading fluxes fixed. We also consider a class of IIB models with non-geometric fluxes in which the effective field theory analysis seems to lead to a naive separation of scales and a violation of the AdS distance conjecture. It has a T-dual which again may be understood as a 10d type IIA theory compactified on S3× S3. In this geometric dual one again observes that the strong AdS distance conjecture is obeyed with MKK2=c′|Λ|, if one takes into account the curvature in the internal space. These findings seem to suggest that all toroidal/orbifold models with fluxes in this class obey MKK2=c|Λ| with c a flux-independent numerical constantThis work is supported by the Spanish Research Agency (Agencia Estatal de Investigación) through the grant IFT Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa SEV-2016-0597, and by the grants FPA2015- 65480-P and PGC2018-095976-B-C21 from MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE. A.H. is supported JHEP03(2020)013 by the Spanish FPU Grant No. FPU15/0501

AdS Swampland Conjectures and Light Fermions

We consider constraints on $D$-dimensional theories in $M_D$, $dS_D$ and $AdS_D$ backgrounds in the light of AdS swampland conjectures as applied to their compactification in a circle. In particular we consider the non-SUSY AdS instability conjecture and the AdS distance conjecture. For $M_D$ and $dS_D$ vacua the results may be summarized by a light fermion conjecture which states that in theories with $\Lambda_D\geq 0$ and a positive first non-vanishing supertrace $(-1)^{k+1}\text{Str} M^{2k}>0$, a surplus of light fermions with mass $m_f\lesssim \Lambda_D^{1/D}$ must be present. On the contrary, the cases of $M_D$ and $AdS_D$ can be made consistent with the mild but not the strong version of the AdS Distance conjecture, since the KK tower in the lower $d$-dim theory will scale as $m\lesssim \Lambda_d^{\alpha}$ with $\alpha=1/d$. The above constraints also suggest that the Standard Model of particle physics would be inconsistent in Minkowski space but consistent in dS if the lightest neutrino is Dirac and lighter than the cosmological constant scale.Comment: Minor corrections. References adde

The Swampland Distance Conjecture and towers of tensionless branes

The Swampland Distance Conjecture states that at infinite distance in the scalar moduli space an infinite tower of particles become exponentially massless. We study this issue in the context of 4d type IIA and type IIB Calabi-Yau compactifications. We find that for large moduli not only towers of particles but also domain walls and strings become tensionless. We study in detail the case of type IIA and IIB = 1 CY orientifolds and show how for infinite Kähler and/or complex structure moduli towers of domain walls and strings become tensionless, depending on the particular direction in moduli space. For the type IIA case we construct the monodromy orbits of domain walls in detail. We study the structure of mass scales in these limits and find that these towers may occur at the same scale as the fundamental string scale or the KK scale making sometimes difficult an effective field theory description. The structure of IIA and IIB towers are consistent with mirror symmetry, as long as towers of exotic domain walls associated to non-geometric fluxes also appear. We briefly discuss the issue of emergence within this context and the possible implications for 4d vacuaThis work has been supported by the ERC Advanced Grant SPLE under contract ERC-2012-ADG-20120216-320421, by the grant FPA2012-32828 from the MINECO, and the grant SEV-2012-0249 of the “Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa” Programme. The work of A.H. is supported by the Spanish FPU Grant No. FPU15/05012

More About Discrete Gauge Anomalies

I discuss and extend several results concerning the cancellation of discrete gauge anomalies. I show how heavy fermions do not decouple in the presence of discrete gauge anomalies. As a consequence, in general, cancellation of discrete gauge anomalies cannot be described merely in terms of low energy operators involving only the light fermions. I also discuss cancellation of discrete gauge anomalies through a discrete version of the Green-Schwarz (GS) mechanism as well as the possibility of discrete gauge R-symmetries and their anomalies. Finally, some phenomenological applications are discussed. This includes symmetries guaranteeing absence of FCNC in two-Higgs models and generalized matter parities stabilizing the proton in the supersymmetric standard model. In the presence of a discrete GS mechanism or/and gauge R-symmetries, new possibilities for anomaly free such symmetries are found.Comment: 25 pages CERN-TH.6662/92 (replaced version contains additional tex-macros

RR photons

Journal of High Energy Physics 2011.9 (2011): 110 reproduced by permission of Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA)Type II string compactifications to 4d generically contain massless Ramond-Ramond U(1) gauge symmetries. However there is no massless matter charged under these U(1)’s, which makes a priori difficult to measure any physical consequences of their existence. There is however a window of opportunity if these RR U(1)’s mix with the hypercharge U(1)Y (hence with the photon). In this paper we study in detail different avenues by which U(1)RR bosons may mix with D-brane U(1)’s. We concentrate on Type IIA orientifolds and their M-theory lift, and provide geometric criteria for the existence of such mixing, which may occur either via standard kinetic mixing or via the mass terms induced by Stückelberg couplings. The latter case is particularly interesting, and appears whenever D-branes wrap torsional p-cycles in the compactification manifold. We also show that in the presence of torsional cycles discrete gauge symmetries and Aharanov-Bohm strings and particles appear in the 4d effective action, and that type IIA Stückelberg couplings can be understood in terms of torsional (co)homology in M-theory. We provide examples of Type IIA Calabi-Yau orientifolds in which the required torsional cycles exist and kinetic mixing induced by mass mixing is present. We discuss some henomenological consequences of our findings. In particular, we find that mass mixing may induce corrections relevant for hypercharge gauge coupling unification in F-theory SU(5) GUT’

Modular Symmetries and the Swampland Conjectures

Recent string theory tests of swampland ideas like the distance or the dS conjectures have been performed at weak coupling. Testing these ideas beyond the weak coupling regime remains challenging. We propose to exploit the modular symmetries of the moduli effective action to check swampland constraints beyond perturbation theory. As an example we study the case of heterotic 4d $\mathcal{N}=1$ compactifications, whose non-perturbative effective action is known to be invariant under modular symmetries acting on the K\"ahler and complex structure moduli, in particular $SL(2,Z)$ T-dualities (or subgroups thereof) for 4d heterotic or orbifold compactifications. Remarkably, in models with non-perturbative superpotentials, the corresponding duality invariant potentials diverge at points at infinite distance in moduli space. The divergence relates to towers of states becoming light, in agreement with the distance conjecture. We discuss specific examples of this behavior based on gaugino condensation in heterotic orbifolds. We show that these examples are dual to compactifications of type I' or Horava-Witten theory, in which the $SL(2,Z)$ acts on the complex structure of an underlying 2-torus, and the tower of light states correspond to D0-branes or M-theory KK modes. The non-perturbative examples explored point to potentials not leading to weak coupling at infinite distance, but rather diverging in the asymptotic corners of moduli space, dynamically forbidding the access to points with global symmetries. We perform a study of general modular invariant potentials and find that there are dS maxima and saddle points but no dS minima, and that all examples explored obey the refined dS conjecture.Comment: Minor Corrections. 41 pages, 4 figure