Winding out of the Swamp: Evading the Weak Gravity Conjecture with F-term Winding Inflation?

Hebecker, Arthur; Mangat, Patrick; Rompineve, Fabrizio; Witkowski, Lukas T.

doi:10.48550/arxiv.1503.07912

Cited by 22 publications

(63 citation statements)

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“…We now briefly discuss what the Weak Gravity Conjecture is and apply it to 3-form fields. This conjecture has proved useful in constraining inflationary models based on natural inflation with one or multiple axions [49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63]. Our analysis is the first dedicated study of WGC constraints to axion monodromy models as well 6 .…”

Section: Wgc and Membranesmentioning

confidence: 83%

Relaxion monodromy and the Weak Gravity Conjecture

Ibáñez

Montero

Uranga

et al. 2016

J. High Energ. Phys.

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Abstract:The recently proposed relaxion models require extremely large trans-Planckian axion excursions as well as a potential explicitly violating the axion shift symmetry. The latter property is however inconsistent with the axion periodicity, which corresponds to a gauged discrete shift symmetry. A way to make things consistent is to use monodromy, i.e. both the axion and the potential parameters transform under the discrete shift symmetry. The structure is better described in terms of a 3-form field C µνρ coupling to the SM Higgs through its field strength F 4 . The 4-form also couples linearly to the relaxion, in the Kaloper-Sorbo fashion. The extremely small relaxion-Higgs coupling arises in a see-saw fashion as g F 4 /f , with f being the axion decay constant. We discuss constraints on this type of constructions from membrane nucleation and the Weak Gravity Conjecture. The latter requires the existence of membranes, whose too fast nucleation could in principle drive the theory out of control, unless the cut-off scale is lowered. This allows to rule out the simplest models with the QCD axion as relaxion candidate on purely theoretical grounds. We also discuss possible avenues to embed this structure into string theory.

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Section: Wgc and Membranesmentioning

confidence: 83%

Relaxion monodromy and the Weak Gravity Conjecture

Ibáñez

Montero

Uranga

et al. 2016

J. High Energ. Phys.

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“…which corresponds to the axion couplings considered in [34] to generate a KNP-type axion potential. One then finds…”

Section: This Means That Oncementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since some part of the axion potential for the alignment mechanism could be induced by either perturbative effects such as flux or other forms of nonperturbative effects such as hidden gaugino condensation, this appears to be a rather plausible possibility. Indeed, known string theoretic construction of the aligned natural inflation involves an instanton which is not relevant for the alignment mechanism [31][32][33][34][35]54]. Yet, such instanton can generate an additional axion potential which does not affect the alignment mechanism as it corresponds to a subleading correction, but may give rise to an observable consequence in the precision CMB data.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aligned natural inflation with modulations

Choi¹,

Kim²

2016

Physics Letters B

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The weak gravity conjecture applied for the aligned natural inflation indicates that generically there can be a modulation of the inflaton potential, with a period determined by sub-Planckian axion scale. We study the oscillations in the primordial power spectrum induced by such modulation, and discuss the resulting observational constraints on the model.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures; v2: minor corrections, references added, figure adde

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“…Much of the recent phenomenological interest in the WGC derives from its potential power to constrain axion inflation [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]: To this end, one views axion models as 0form gauge theories in the regime where the axionic coupling 1/f is small (i.e. f M P ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Weak Gravity Conjecture and the axionic black hole paradox

Hebecker

Soler

2017

J. High Energ. Phys.

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In theories with a perturbatively massless 2-form (dual to an axion), a paradox may arise in the process of black hole evaporation. Schwarzschild black holes can support a non-trivial Wilson-line-type field, the integral of the 2-form around their horizon. After such an 'axionic black hole' evaporates, the Wilson line must be supported by the corresponding 3-form field strength in the region formerly occupied by the black hole. In the limit of small axion decay-constant f , the energy required for this field configuration is too large. Thus, energy can not be conserved in the process of black hole evaporation. The natural resolution of this paradox is through the presence of light strings, which allow the black hole to "shed" its axionic hair sufficiently early. This gives rise to a new WeakGravity-type argument in the 2-form context: small coupling, in this case f , enforces the presence of light strings or a low cutoff. We also discuss how this argument may be modified in situations where the weak coupling regime is achieved in the low-energy effective theory through an appropriate gauging of a model with a vector field and two 2-forms.

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Winding out of the Swamp: Evading the Weak Gravity Conjecture with F-term Winding Inflation?

Cited by 22 publications

References 0 publications

Relaxion monodromy and the Weak Gravity Conjecture

Relaxion monodromy and the Weak Gravity Conjecture

Aligned natural inflation with modulations

The Weak Gravity Conjecture and the axionic black hole paradox

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