Evidence for a sublattice weak gravity conjecture

Heidenreich, Ben; Reece, Matthew; Rudelius, Tom

doi:10.1007/jhep08(2017)025

Cited by 187 publications

(343 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…As before, the leading contribution to the kinetic term of the saxion is 24) and the canonically normalised saxion is given by (5.22). The leading contribution to the kinetic term for the axion is 25) where omitted terms decrease as (u+ū) −3 . While both K uū and K vv scale as (u+ū) −2 , this behaviour has different origins in the two cases.…”

Section: Jhep02(2017)097mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Can gravitational instantons really constrain axion inflation?

Hebecker¹,

Mangat²,

Theisen

et al. 2017

J. High Energ. Phys.

100

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Axions play a central role in inflationary model building and other cosmological applications. This is mainly due to their flat potential, which is protected by a global shift symmetry. However, quantum gravity is known to break global symmetries, the crucial effect in the present context being gravitational instantons or Giddings-Strominger wormholes. We attempt to quantify, as model-independently as possible, how large a scalar potential is induced by this general quantum gravity effect. We pay particular attention to the crucial issue which solutions can or cannot be trusted in the presence of a moduli-stabilisation and a Kaluza-Klein scale. An important conclusion is that, due to specific numerical prefactors, the effect is surprisingly small even in UV-completions with the highest possible scale offered by string theory.As we go along, we discuss in detail Euclidean wormholes, cored and extremal instantons, and how the latter arise from 5d Reissner-Nordström black holes. We attempt to dispel possible doubts that wormholes contribute to the scalar potential by an explicit calculation. We analyse the role of stabilised dilaton-like moduli. Finally, we argue that Euclidean wormholes may be the objects satisfying the Weak Gravity Conjecture extended to instantons.

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Section: Jhep02(2017)097mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A more careful definition becomes important when several U(1) group factors (or axion species) are present. See [5,9,11,13,17,25] for more details. [113].…”

Section: Gravitational Instantons and The Weak Gravity Conjecturementioning

confidence: 99%

Can gravitational instantons really constrain axion inflation?

Hebecker¹,

Mangat²,

Theisen

et al. 2017

J. High Energ. Phys.

100

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Maybe this is not the case, which begs the question; or maybe, whenever we have a sector like the one discussed above, the full theory behaves in such a way that after Higgsing the new EFT cutoff is indeed (g/Z)M P . In the latter point of view, advocated in [30], variants of the WGC are valid constraints on EFT's which are not in the Swampland, and the objections raised in [27] and which we have just reviewed do not apply.…”

Section: Jhep02(2018)057mentioning

confidence: 85%

“…If there are no fields in the EFT other than ψ 1 , ψ 2 and the gauge fields, there is no new physics scale at ≃ (g/Z)M p , and the magnetic WGC fails under Higgsing in this particular model. As discussed in [30], the above reasoning makes the implicit assumption that the UV theory before Higgsing (with fields ψ 1 , ψ 2 , A 1 , A 2 , and nothing else) is not in the Swampland to begin with. Maybe this is not the case, which begs the question; or maybe, whenever we have a sector like the one discussed above, the full theory behaves in such a way that after Higgsing the new EFT cutoff is indeed (g/Z)M P .…”

Section: Jhep02(2018)057mentioning

confidence: 99%

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A note on the WGC, effective field theory and clockwork within string theory

Ibáñez

Montero

2018

J. High Energ. Phys.

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It has been recently argued that Higgsing of theories with U(1) n gauge interactions consistent with the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) may lead to effective field theories parametrically violating WGC constraints. The minimal examples typically involve Higgs scalars with a large charge with respect to a U(1) (e.g. charges (Z, 1) in U(1) 2 with Z ≫ 1). This type of Higgs multiplets play also a key role in clockwork U(1) theories. We study these issues in the context of heterotic string theory and find that, even if there is no new physics at the standard magnetic WGC scale Λ ∼ g IR M P , the string scale is just slightly above, at a scale ∼ √ k IR Λ. Here k IR is the level of the IR U(1) worldsheet current. We show that, unlike the standard magnetic cutoff, this bound is insensitive to subsequent Higgsing. One may argue that this constraint gives rise to no bound at the effective field theory level since k IR is model dependent and in general unknown. However there is an additional constraint to be taken into account, which is that the Higgsing scalars with large charge Z should be part of the string massless spectrum, which becomes an upper bound k IR ≤ k 2 0 , where k 0 is the level of the UV currents. Thus, for fixed k 0 , Z cannot be made parametrically large. The upper bound on the charges Z leads to limitations on the size and structure of hierarchies in an iterated U(1) clockwork mechanism.

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Weak Gravity Conjecture From Low Energy Observers' Perspective

Furuuchi

2018

Fortschritte der Physik

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The Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) was proposed to constrain Effective Field Theories (EFTs) with Abelian gauge symmetry coupled to gravity. In this article, I study the WGC from low energy observers' perspective, and revisit the issue of to what extent the WGC actually constrains EFTs. For this purpose, for a given EFT, I introduce associated idealized low energy observers who only have access to the energy scale below the UV cut-off scale of the EFT. In the framework of EFT, there is a clear difference between the particles lighter than the UV cut-off scale and the particles which are heavier than the UV cut-off scale, as the lighter particles can be created below the UV cut-off scale while the heavier particles are not. This difference implies that the knowledge of the low energy observers on the stable heavy particles can be limited, as the availability of the stable heavy particles is determined by the environment prepared by some UV theory unknown to the low energy observers. The limitation of the knowledge of the low energy observers regarding the stable heavy particles whose mass is above the UV cut-off scale of the EFT leads to the limitation of the WGC for constraining EFTs. To illustrate these points in an example, I analyze a model proposed by Saraswat [1] which respects the WGC at high energy, but which may appear to violate the WGC for the low energy observers. Implications of the analysis to the bottom-up model buildings using EFTs are discussed.2 Throughout this article I will be concerned only with parametric relations, and I use ∼ to indicate that I are suppressing O(1) or even O(8π ) numerical factors. 3 When I just write as charge, I mean the electric charge. For a magnetic charge, I will explicitly mention it. 4 Without gravity, a Quantum Field Theory (QFT) can be UV complete, which corresponds to being infinity. With gravity, it is natural to assume that is finite and below the Planck scale. If one assumes asymptotically safe gravity, it may accommodate infinite , but I will not consider such models.

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Evidence for a sublattice weak gravity conjecture

Cited by 187 publications

References 57 publications

Can gravitational instantons really constrain axion inflation?

Can gravitational instantons really constrain axion inflation?

A note on the WGC, effective field theory and clockwork within string theory

Weak Gravity Conjecture From Low Energy Observers' Perspective

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