Swamplandia 2024 - in Bavaria
von
Montag, 27. Mai 2024(09:00)
bis
Mittwoch, 29. Mai 2024(18:00)
Montag, 27. Mai 2024
10:30
Coffee Break
Coffee Break
10:30 - 10:50
10:50
Welcome
Welcome
10:50 - 11:00
11:00
Matilda Delgado
Matilda Delgado
11:00 - 11:30
Global anomalies and Bordism of Non-Supersymmetric Strings The three tachyon-free non-supersymmetric string theories in ten dimensions provide a handle on quantum gravity away from the supersymmetric lamppost. However, they have not been shown to be fully consistent; although local anomalies cancel due to versions of the Green-Schwarz mechanism, there could be global anomalies that could become fatal pathologies. We study these global anomalies in the three ten-dimensional non-supersymmetric, tachyon-free string theories. We demonstrate how they cancel by showing that the relevant bordism classes are trivial. An anomaly inflow argument allows us to shed light on the worldvolume degrees of freedom of the NS5 brane in the SO(16) x SO(16) theory. Finally, the bordism groups we compute can be used to predict the existence of new non-supersymmetric branes in these theories, by means of the cobordism conjecture.
11:30
Simon Schreyer
Simon Schreyer
11:30 - 12:00
News on the anti-D3-brane uplift For the anti-D3-brane uplift one places p anti-D3-branes at the tip of a Klebanov-Strassler (KS) throat. This setup can only contribute positively to the vacuum energy if it is stable against the so called KPV decay where the anti-branes puff up into an NS5-brane which subsequently annihilates against flux and forms a supersymmetric state at zero vacuum energy. In this talk, I will discuss this setup of p anti-D3 branes at the tip of the KS throat at higher orders in alpha' from the perspective of a nonabelian stack of D3-branes and recap some earlier results from the puffed up NS5-brane perspective. I will point out advantages of both pictures and discuss implications for phenomenology.
12:00
Lunch Break
Lunch Break
12:00 - 13:30
13:30
Bruno de Luca
Bruno de Luca
13:30 - 14:00
14:00
Damian van de Heisteeg
Damian van de Heisteeg
14:00 - 14:30
14:30
Hector Parra de Freitas
Hector Parra de Freitas
14:30 - 15:00
15:00
Coffee Break
Coffee Break
15:00 - 15:30
15:30
Amineh Mohseni
Amineh Mohseni
15:30 - 16:00
16:00
Alvaro Herraez
Alvaro Herraez
16:00 - 16:30
16:30
Niccolo Cribiori
Niccolo Cribiori
16:30 - 17:00
Dienstag, 28. Mai 2024
09:00
Alessandro Mininno
Alessandro Mininno
09:00 - 09:30
The Minimal Weak Gravity Conjecture We examine the minimal constraints imposed by the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) on the particle spectrum of quantum gravity theories. Recently, we argued for the existence of a minimal radius in circle reductions of generic quantum gravity theories. Consequently, whenever a minimal radius exists and the WGC is satisfied at the particle level below the black hole threshold by some states, these states are sufficient for consistency under dimensional reduction, even without a tower of super-extremal particles. Conversely, the absence of a minimal radius always coincides with the presence of a weakly coupled super-extremal tower of particle states. This observation motivates the Minimal Weak Gravity Conjecture, which posits that towers of super-extremal particles appear only when required for consistency of the WGC under dimensional reduction. The talk is based on [2312.04619].
09:30
Veronica Collazuol
Veronica Collazuol
09:30 - 10:00
10:00
Georges Obied
Georges Obied
10:00 - 10:30
10:30
Coffee Break
Coffee Break
10:30 - 11:00
11:00
Jeroen Monnee
Jeroen Monnee
11:00 - 11:30
11:30
Andriana Makridou
Andriana Makridou
11:30 - 12:00
12:00
Lunch Break
Lunch Break
12:00 - 13:30
15:00
Excursion and Dinner
Excursion and Dinner
15:00 - 23:00
Mittwoch, 29. Mai 2024
09:00
Rafael Alvarez-Garcia
Rafael Alvarez-Garcia
09:00 - 09:30
Non-minimal Elliptic Threefolds and the Distance Conjecture We analyze infinite-distance limits in the complex structure moduli space of six-dimensional F-theory, providing an algebro-geometric classification and a physical interpretation. From the point of view of the Swampland Program, the motivation is to understand the fate of open-moduli infinite-distance limits in relation with the Distance Conjecture. From an F-theory perspective, the infinite-distance limits correspond to degenerations of elliptic threefolds leading to non-minimal singularities in codimension one and higher. We show how such non-crepant singularities can be removed by a systematic sequence of blow-ups of the bases of the infinite-distance degenerations, making their central fibers a union of log Calabi-Yau spaces glued together along their boundaries. We interpret said central fibers as either the endpoints of decompactification limits with six-dimensional defects or as emergent string limits, providing further evidence for the Emergent String Conjecture.
09:30
Björn Friedrich
Björn Friedrich
09:30 - 10:00
An EFT for end-of-the-world branes and the creation of universes from nothing End-of-the-world (ETW) branes are expected to be a generic feature of string theory and may play an important role in cosmology. We explain how ETW branes can be described from a 4d EFT point of view and describe how their presence influences predictions in cosmology. We explicitly present a proposal for the creation of universes from nothing making use of the existence of ETW branes.
10:00
Jose Calderon-Infante
Jose Calderon-Infante
10:00 - 10:30
Tensionless Strings Limits in 4d Conformal Manifolds Three distinct infinite distance limits appear in the conformal manifolds of four-dimensional superconformal field theories admitting large N limit. They are distinguished by the CFT Distance Conjecture parameter, controlling the exponential behavior with the distance of the anomalous dimension of higher-spin currents. Borrowing lessons from the moduli spaces of flat space vacua in string theory, we argue that these three limits correspond to three different strings becoming tensionless in AdS. To support this claim, we show that the large N Hagedorn temperature of the CFT in these limits only depends on the CFT Distance Conjecture parameter. Thus, these three limits are physically distinguished by the density of states at high energies. Along the way, we build the first Distance Conjecture convex hull for a CFT and find a remarkable connection to no separation of scales in AdS.
10:30
Coffee Break
Coffee Break
10:30 - 11:00
11:00
Naomi Gendler
Naomi Gendler
11:00 - 11:30
11:30
Max Hübner
Max Hübner
11:30 - 12:00
12:00
Lunch Break
Lunch Break
12:00 - 13:30
13:30
Houri Tarazi
Houri Tarazi
13:30 - 14:00
14:00
Muthusamy Rajaguru
Muthusamy Rajaguru
14:00 - 14:30
14:30
John Stout
John Stout
14:30 - 15:00
15:00
Coffee Break
Coffee Break
15:00 - 15:30
15:30
Nicolo Petri
Nicolo Petri
15:30 - 16:00
Exploring the AdS conjecture: a positive metric over DGKT vacua The AdS Distance conjecture proposes a notion of distance between AdS vacua in quantum gravity. Although the need for such a notion is evident, defining and computing this distance is challenging, both conceptually and technically. In my talk, I will address this challenge by proposing a consistent framework for defining and computing the metric over AdS vacua, establishing a well-defined distance. The key idea involves considering the off-shell quadratic variation of the string theory action and evaluating it over the space of on-shell solutions. I will particularly focus on DGKT vacua. Given the ongoing debate regarding whether these vacua exist as fully localized solutions, it is particularly intriguing to test our proposed metric over AdS vacua within this framework. I will show that DGKT vacua exhibit a positive metric, yielding a well-defined AdS distance. In conclusion, I will introduce a potential new Swampland criterion, suggesting that the metric over the space of vacua in quantum gravity, as defined by our proposed procedure, is positive definite.
16:00
Ivano Basile
Ivano Basile
16:00 - 16:30
Decoding Dualities at Divergent Distance String theory is quite picky: the only weakly coupled degrees of freedom that arise beyond effective quantum fields are encoded in a unique critical string, and dualities relate its various limits. Can we bootstrap this rigidity from general quantum gravity ideas? Combining insights on information theory, black holes and scattering amplitudes we build a swamplandish case for the emergent string conjecture. To this end, we leverage the properties of minimal black holes to indicate the emergence of geometry and strings from light towers of species, consistently with a complementary worldsheet conformal field theory analysis.