Obstacles to constructing de Sitter space in string theory

DOI10.1007/JHEP02(2021)050MaRDI QIDQ2025955zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Michael Dine, Jamie A. P. Law-Smith, Shijun Sun, Duncan Wood, Yan Yu

Publication date 17 May 2021

Published in Journal of High Energy Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.12399

zbMATH Keywords

classical theories of gravityspacetime singularitiessuperstring vacua

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Space-time singularities, cosmic censorship, etc. (83C75) String and superstring theories in gravitational theory (83E30)

Abstract: There have been many attempts to construct de Sitter space-times in string theory. While arguably there have been some successes, this has proven challenging, leading to the de Sitter swampland conjecture: quantum theories of gravity do not admit stable or metastable de Sitter space. Here we explain that, within controlled approximations, one lacks the tools to construct de Sitter space in string theory. Such approximations would require the existence of a set of (arbitrarily) small parameters, subject to severe constraints. But beyond this one also needs an understanding of big-bang and big-crunch singularities that is not currently accessible to standard approximations in string theory. The existence or non-existence of metastable de Sitter space in string theory remains a matter of conjecture.

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Cited in

(13)

• De Sitter in non-supersymmetric string theories: no-go theorems and brane-worlds
• Asymptotic scalar field cosmology in string theory
• De Sitter space in non-critical string theory
• What if string theory has no de Sitter vacua?
• The Landscape, the Swampland and the Era of Precision Cosmology
• Tachyonic de Sitter Solutions of 10d Type II Supergravities
• Superstring cosmology — a complementary review
• Effective de Sitter space, quantum behaviour and large-scale spectral dimension \((3+1)\)
• Comments on the transplanckian censorship conjecture
• From inflation to quintessence: a history of the universe in string theory
• Do we live on the end of the world?
• O(16) O(16) heterotic theory on AdS₃ S^3 T^4
• Hitchhiker's guide to the swampland: the cosmologist's handbook to the string-theoretical swampland programme

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