Nothing is certain in string compactifications
From MaRDI portal
Abstract: A bubble of nothing is a spacetime instability where a compact dimension collapses. After nucleation, it expands at the speed of light, leaving "nothing" behind. We argue that the topological and dynamical mechanisms which could protect a compactification against decay to nothing seem to be absent in string compactifications once supersymmetry is broken. The topological obstruction lies in a bordism group and, surprisingly, it can disappear even for a SUSY-compatible spin structure. As a proof of principle, we construct an explicit bubble of nothing for a with completely periodic (SUSY-compatible) spin structure in an Einstein dilaton Gauss-Bonnet theory, which arises in the low-energy limit of certain heterotic and type II flux compactifications. Without the topological protection, supersymmetric compactifications are purely stabilized by a Coleman-deLuccia mechanism, which relies on a certain local energy condition. This is violated in our example by the nonsupersymmetric GB term. In the presence of fluxes this energy condition gets modified and its violation might be related to the Weak Gravity Conjecture. We expect that our techniques can be used to construct a plethora of new bubbles of nothing in any setup where the low-energy bordism group vanishes, including type II compactifications on , AdS flux compactifications on 5-manifolds, and M-theory on 7-manifolds. This lends further evidence to the conjecture that any non-supersymmetric vacuum of quantum gravity is ultimately unstable.
Recommendations
Cites work
- R^4 couplings in M- and type II theories on Calabi-Yau spaces
- D -instantons and asymptotic geometries
- A new proof of the positive energy theorem.
- A non-supersymmetric open-string theory and S-duality
- A note on positive energy theorem for spaces with asymptotic SUSY compactification
- A one-loop test of string duality
- A positive mass theorem for spaces with asymptotic SUSY compactification
- A Relativist's Toolkit
- A Tower Weak Gravity Conjecture from Infrared Consistency
- Averaged null energy condition from causality
- Boundary terms, variational principles, and higher derivative modified gravity
- Casimir effect between world-branes in heterotic M-theory.
- CFT's from Calabi-Yau four-folds
- Closed tachyon solitons in type II string theory
- Curvature terms in D-brane actions and their M-theory origin.
- D3-brane potentials from fluxes in AdS/CFT
- Eleven-dimensional origin of string/string duality: A one-loop test
- Fermionic symmetry protected topological phases and cobordisms
- First order perturbations of hypersurfaces of arbitrary causal character
- First- and second-order perturbations of hypersurfaces
- General Relativity
- Geometry of general hypersurfaces in spacetime: junction conditions
- Gravity and strings
- Heterotic - type I superstring duality and low-energy effective actions
- Higher anomalies, higher symmetries, and cobordisms. I: Classification of higher-symmetry-protected opological states and their boundary fermionic/bosonic anomalies via a generalized cobordism theory
- Higher-derivative couplings in string theory: dualities and the \(B\) field
- scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3842680 (Why is no real title available?)
- scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3918713 (Why is no real title available?)
- scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4050489 (Why is no real title available?)
- scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1944555 (Why is no real title available?)
- scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2155784 (Why is no real title available?)
- scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3240351 (Why is no real title available?)
- Instability of the Kaluza-Klein vacuum
- Junction conditions in quadratic gravity: thin shells and double layers
- Lanczos-Lovelock models of gravity
- Large complex structure limits of \(K3\) surfaces
- Lectures on F-theory compactifications and model building
- Lectures on nongeometric flux compactifications
- M-theory on eight-manifolds
- Manifolds of positive scalar curvature: a progress report
- Mirror symmetry is \(T\)-duality
- Moduli space of Calabi-Yau manifolds
- Negative branes, supergroups and the signature of spacetime
- Negative energy in string theory and cosmic censorship violation
- Non-supersymmetric AdS and the swampland
- Non‐extremal instantons and wormholes in string theory
- Nothing really matters
- ON BOUNDARY TERMS AND CONFORMAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN CURVED SPACETIMES
- On the proof of the positive mass conjecture in general relativity
- On the spin geometry of supergravity and string theory
- On the stability of Riemannian manifold with parallel spinors
- On useful conformal transformations in general relativity
- Perturbation of the junction condition and doubly gauge-invariant variables
- Point-like instantons on \(K3\) orbifolds
- Proof of the weak gravity conjecture from black hole entropy
- Repulsive forces and the weak gravity conjecture
- Restrictions imposed by superconformal invariance on quantum field theories
- Scalar fields, energy conditions and traversable wormholes
- String theory dynamics in various dimensions
- Stringy cosmic strings and noncompact Calabi-Yau manifolds
- Summing up Dirichlet Instantons
- Supersymmetric higher-derivative actions in 10 and 11 dimensions, the associated superalgebras and their formulation in superspace
- Supersymmetry, Ricci flat manifolds and the string landscape
- The \( \mathcal{N}=2 \) superconformal bootstrap
- The Dirac spectrum of Bieberbach manifolds
- The smeared null energy condition
- The structure of the Spin cobordism ring
- The Swampland: Introduction and Review
- The weak gravity conjecture and scalar fields
- Tunneling in axion monodromy
- Twofold symmetries of the pure gravity action
- Weak coupling, degeneration and log Calabi-Yau spaces
Cited in
(48)- Winding uplifts and the challenges of weak and strong SUSY breaking in AdS
- Stringy tachyonic instabilities of non-supersymmetric Ricci flat backgrounds
- De Sitter decays to infinity
- On the stability of string theory vacua
- At the end of the world: local dynamical cobordism
- On codimension-one vacua and string theory
- Topological violation of global symmetries in quantum gravity
- AdS swampland conjectures and light fermions
- Dynamical cobordism of a domain wall and its companion defect 7-brane
- Dynamical cobordism and the beginning of time: supercritical strings and tachyon condensation
- Fine-tuned vs. natural supersymmetry: what does the string landscape predict?
- Heterotic strings on \(\mathbb{T}^3/\mathbb{Z}_2\), Nikulin involutions and M-theory
- The octagon at large M
- New supersymmetric string theories from discrete theta angles
- The stabilizing effect of gravity made simple
- Aspects of dynamical cobordism in AdS/CFT
- Fake supersymmetry with tadpole potentials
- Neutralizing topological obstructions to bubbles of nothing
- Brane nucleation in supersymmetric models
- Adding fluxes to consistent truncations: IIB supergravity on \(\mathrm{AdS}_3 \times S^3 \times S^3 \times S^1\)
- Dimensional reduction of cobordism and K-theory
- Quantum gravity bounds on \(\mathcal{N} = 1\) effective theories in four dimensions
- Dynamical cobordism conjecture: solutions for end-of-the-world branes
- Cobordism and bubbles of anything in the string landscape
- String cosmology: from the early universe to today
- Hiding the extra dimensions: a review on scale separation in string theory
- Intersecting end of the world branes
- Bubbles of nothing: the tunneling potential approach
- The bubble of nothing under T-duality
- The boundary proposal
- Bordism for the 2-group symmetries of the heterotic and CHL strings
- Constraints on the topology of type IIB string theory
- Charge (in)stability and superradiance of topological stars
- Charting the conformal manifold of holographic \(\mathrm{CFT}_2\)'s
- Supersymmetry-breaking compactifications on Riemann-flat manifolds
- Localized gravity, de Sitter, and the horizon criterion
- Decay of Kaluza-Klein vacuum via singular instanton
- Relative quantum gravity: localized gravity and the swampland
- Morse-Bott inequalities, topology change and cobordisms to nothing
- Banks-Zaks stabilisation of non-SUSY strings
- Celestial topology, symmetry theories, and evidence for a nonSUSY D3-brane CFT
- End-of-the-world branes and inflationary predictions for rocky and swampy landscapes
- SymTFT fans: the symmetry theory of \(4d\) \(\mathcal{N} = 4\) super Yang-Mills on spaces with boundaries
- End of the world boundaries for chiral quantum gravity theories
- End of the world brane dynamics in holographic 4d \(\mathcal{N} = 4\) \(\mathrm{SU}(N)\) with 3d \(\mathcal{N} = 2\) boundary conditions
- Hitchhiker's guide to the swampland: the cosmologist's handbook to the string-theoretical swampland programme
- Non-supersymmetric heterotic strings on A d S₄ S^3 S^3
- Dynamical cobordism and swampland distance conjectures
This page was built for publication: Nothing is certain in string compactifications
Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q2660200)
