Quantum Gravity Constraints on Large Field Inflation

Blumenhagen, Ralph

doi:10.22323/1.318.0175

Cited by 21 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…The point where this would happen though is uncertain, since in principle the tower of states could be very light before its effects become important. See also [] for a similar discussion.…”

Section: The De Sitter Conjecturementioning

confidence: 95%

“…See [] for a review of inflation, and [] for a review on its potential realizations in string theory. See also []. for a review related to the distance conjecture, and [] for (an incomplete list of) an analysis of specific inflation models with respect to the distance conjecture.…”

Section: Charting the Swamplandmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This may nullify the backreaction sufficiently to maintain a linear growth of the proper field distance with the axion expectation value . The analysis of the magnitude of backreaction effects in flux‐based axion monodromy models has been performed in, for example []. The results depend on the specific models, with some cases possibly allowing for backreaction control, however in the most explicit examples the analysis shows that it is not possible to induce a sufficiently large hierarchy of masses to stop the effect seen in the simple IIA models of backreaction effects becoming important already at sub‐Planckian proper distances.…”

Section: Swampland Tests In String Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Swampland: Introduction and Review

Palti

2019

Fortschritte der Physik

902

1,097

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The Swampland program aims to distinguish effective theories which can be completed into quantum gravity in the ultraviolet from those which cannot. This article forms an introduction to the field, assuming only a knowledge of quantum field theory and general relativity. It also forms a comprehensive review, covering the range of ideas that are part of the field, from the Weak Gravity Conjecture, through compactifications of String Theory, to the de Sitter conjecture.

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Section: The De Sitter Conjecturementioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Charting the Swamplandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Swampland Tests In String Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Swampland: Introduction and Review

Palti

2019

Fortschritte der Physik

902

1,097

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“…At least in some cases, the appearance of the latter may be prevented by the backreaction of the axion on the saxion (as reviewed in Sect. 5 of []). Either way one always expects, based on the argument of the previous section, to find an asymptotically decaying potential that in this case could have oscillations.…”

Section: A Potential Loopholementioning

confidence: 99%

The Asymptotic dS Swampland Conjecture ‐ a Simplified Derivation and a Potential Loophole

Hebecker

Wrase

2018

Fortschritte der Physik

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Recently, arguments for a refined de Sitter conjecture were put forward in [1]. Using the large distance conjecture of [2], the authors provide evidence for this dS conjecture in asymptotic regimes of field space, where the parametric control of string theory becomes arbitrarily good. Their main tool is Bousso's covariant entropy bound.[3] Here, we describe a simpler way to reach a similar conclusion. The argument is based on the fact that the cutoff of an effective theory with gravity decreases as the number of species grows. We then discuss a loophole in this argument and its possible counterpart in the assumptions underlying the entropy‐based derivation. The idea is to consider potentials which, while they remain below an exponentially falling bound, have small oscillations leading locally to relatively flat regions or even to an infinite series of dS minima.

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“…The swampland idea together with the infinite distance conjecture was tested in string theory in many interesting instances [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. In many cases so far one asks the question, if particular effective matter quantum field theories like effective gauge theories can be consistently coupled to quantum gravity or not.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Swampland, gradient flow and infinite distance

Kehagias

Lüst

2020

J. High Energ. Phys.

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In the first part of this paper we will work out a close and so far not yet noticed correspondence between the swampland approach in quantum gravity and geometric flow equations in general relativity, most notably the Ricci flow. We conjecture that following the gradient flow towards a fixed point, which is at infinite distance in the space of background metrics, is accompanied by an infinite tower of states in quantum gravity. In case of the Ricci flow, this conjecture is in accordance with the generalized distance and AdS distance conjectures, which were recently discussed in the literature, but it should also hold for more general background spaces. We argue that the entropy functionals of gradient flows provide a useful definition of the generalized distance in the space of background fields. In particular we give evidence that for the Ricci flow the distance ∆ can be defined in terms of the mean scalar curvature of the manifold, ∆ ∼ logR. For a more general gradient flow, the distance functional also depends on the string coupling constant.In the second part of the paper we will apply the generalized distance conjecture to gravity theories with higher curvature interactions, like higher derivative R 2 and W 2 terms. We will show that going to the weak coupling limit of the higher derivative terms corresponds to the infinite distance limit in metric space and hence this limit must be accompanied by an infinite tower of light states. For the case of the R 2 or W 2 couplings, this limit corresponds to the limit of a small cosmological constant or, respectively, to a light additional spin-two field in gravity. In general we see that the limit of small higher curvature couplings belongs to the swampland in quantum gravity, just like the limit of a small U (1) gauge coupling belongs to the swampland as well.

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Quantum Gravity Constraints on Large Field Inflation

Cited by 21 publications

References 42 publications

The Swampland: Introduction and Review

The Swampland: Introduction and Review

The Asymptotic dS Swampland Conjecture ‐ a Simplified Derivation and a Potential Loophole

Swampland, gradient flow and infinite distance

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