papers

Publications (27)

hep-th2019

On Axion Reheating in the String Landscape

James Halverson, Cody Long, Brent Nelson +1

We demonstrate that asymmetric reheating arises in a large ensemble of string compactifications with many axions and gauged dark sectors. This phenomenon may help avoid numerous co…

hep-th2026

Small Vacuum Energy and Tunneling in a Modified Bousso-Polchinski Model

James Halverson, Justin Khoury, Cody Long

We propose a simplified model for the cosmological constant in string theory flux vacua motivated by type IIB and F-theory compactifications. Relative to the Bousso-Polchinski mode…

hep-th2020

Statistical Predictions in String Theory and Deep Generative Models

James Halverson, Cody Long

Generative models in deep learning allow for sampling probability distributions that approximate data distributions. We propose using generative models for making approximate stati…

hep-th2019

On String Theory Expectations for Photon Couplings to Axion-Like Particles

James Halverson, Cody Long, Brent Nelson +1

ALP-photon couplings are modeled in large ensembles of string vacua and random matrix theories. In all cases, the effective coupling increases polynomially in the number of ALPs, o…

hep-th2019

Minimal Surfaces and Weak Gravity

Mehmet Demirtas, Cody Long, Liam McAllister +1

We show that the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) implies a nontrivial upper bound on the volumes of the minimal-volume cycles in certain homology classes that admit no calibrated rep…

hep-th2014

Planckian Axions in String Theory

Thomas C. Bachlechner, Cody Long, Liam McAllister

We argue that super-Planckian diameters of axion fundamental domains can naturally arise in Calabi-Yau compactifications of string theory. In a theory with axions , the f…

hep-ph2021

Gravitational Waves from Dark Yang-Mills Sectors

James Halverson, Cody Long, Anindita Maiti +2

Dark Yang-Mills sectors, which are ubiquitous in the string landscape, may be reheated above their critical temperature and subsequently go through a confining first-order phase tr…

hep-th2019

Instanton Resummation and the Weak Gravity Conjecture

Ben Heidenreich, Cody Long, Liam McAllister +2

We develop methods for resummation of instanton lattice series. Using these tools, we investigate the consequences of the Weak Gravity Conjecture for large-field axion inflation. W…

hep-th2018

The Kreuzer-Skarke Axiverse

Mehmet Demirtas, Cody Long, Liam McAllister +1

We study the topological properties of Calabi-Yau threefold hypersurfaces at large . We obtain two million threefolds by triangulating polytopes from the Kreuzer-Skark…

hep-ph2017

An Ultralight Axion in Supersymmetry and Strings and Cosmology at Small Scales

James Halverson, Cody Long, Pran Nath

Dynamical mechanisms to generate an ultralight axion of mass eV in supergravity and strings are discussed. An ultralight particle of this mass provides a c…

hep-th2016

Systematics of Axion Inflation in Calabi-Yau Hypersurfaces

Cody Long, Liam McAllister, John Stout

We initiate a comprehensive survey of axion inflation in compactifications of type IIB string theory on Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in toric varieties. For every threefold with $h^{1,…

hep-th2014

Heavy Tails in Calabi-Yau Moduli Spaces

Cody Long, Liam McAllister, Paul McGuirk

We study the statistics of the metric on Kähler moduli space in compactifications of string theory on Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in toric varieties. We find striking hierarchies in…

hep-th2020

The Singularity Structure of Scale-Invariant Rank-2 Coulomb Branches

Philip C. Argyres, Cody Long, Mario Martone

We compute the spectrum of scaling dimensions of Coulomb branch operators in 4d rank-2 superconformal field theories. Only a finite rational set of scaling dimens…

hep-th2018

Vacuum Selection from Cosmology on Networks of String Geometries

Jonathan Carifio, William J. Cunningham, James Halverson +3

We introduce network science as a framework for studying the string landscape. Two large networks of string geometries are constructed, where nodes are extra-dimensional six-manifo…

hep-th2022

D Anomaly-Free Matter Spectrum in F-theory on Singular Spaces

Antonella Grassi, James Halverson, Cody Long +3

In this paper we study the 6d localized charged matter spectrum of F-theory directly on a singular elliptic Calabi-Yau 3-fold, i.e. without smoothing via resolution or deformation…

hep-th2017

The Hodge Numbers of Divisors of Calabi-Yau Threefold Hypersurfaces

Andreas P. Braun, Cody Long, Liam McAllister +2

We prove a formula for the Hodge numbers of square-free divisors of Calabi-Yau threefold hypersurfaces in toric varieties. Euclidean branes wrapping divisors affect the vacuum stru…

hep-th2021

Non-Holomorphic Cycles and Non-BPS Black Branes

Cody Long, Artan Sheshmani, Cumrun Vafa +1

We study extremal non-BPS black holes and strings arising in M-theory compactifications on Calabi-Yau threefolds, obtained by wrapping M2 branes on non-holomorphic 2-cycles and M5…

hep-th2022

PQ Axiverse

Mehmet Demirtas, Naomi Gendler, Cody Long +2

We show that the strong CP problem is solved in a large class of compactifications of string theory. The Peccei-Quinn mechanism solves the strong CP problem if the CP-breaking effe…

hep-th2021

Superradiance in String Theory

Viraf M. Mehta, Mehmet Demirtas, Cody Long +3

We perform an extensive analysis of the statistics of axion masses and interactions in compactifications of type IIB string theory, and we show that black hole superradiance exclud…

hep-th2014

Aligned Natural Inflation in String Theory

Cody Long, Liam McAllister, Paul McGuirk

We propose a scenario for realizing super-Planckian axion decay constants in Calabi-Yau orientifolds of type IIB string theory, leading to large-field inflation. Our construction i…

hep-th2017

On Algorithmic Universality in F-theory Compactifications

James Halverson, Cody Long, Benjamin Sung

We study universality of geometric gauge sectors in the string landscape in the context of F-theory compactifications. A finite time construction algorithm is presented for $\frac4…

hep-th2021

Superradiance Exclusions in the Landscape of Type IIB String Theory

Viraf M. Mehta, Mehmet Demirtas, Cody Long +3

We obtain constraints from black hole superradiance in an ensemble of compactifications of type IIB string theory. The constraints require knowing only the axion masses and self-in…

hep-th2017

On the Scarcity of Weak Coupling in the String Landscape

James Halverson, Cody Long, Benjamin Sung

We study the geometric requirements on a threefold base for the corresponding F-theory compactification to admit a weakly-coupled type IIB limit. We examine both the standard Sen l…

hep-th2021

The Desert and the Swampland

Cody Long, Miguel Montero, Cumrun Vafa +1

The most natural expectation away from asymptotic limits in moduli space of supergravity theories is the desert scenario, where there are few states between massless fields and the…

hep-th2018

Non-simply-laced Symmetry Algebras in F-theory on Singular Spaces

Antonella Grassi, James Halverson, Cody Long +2

We demonstrate how non-simply-laced gauge and flavor symmetries arise in F-theory on spaces with non-isolated singularities. The breaking from a simply-laced symmetry to one that i…

hep-th2015

Planckian Axions and the Weak Gravity Conjecture

Thomas C. Bachlechner, Cody Long, Liam McAllister

Several recent works have claimed that the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) excludes super-Planckian displacements of axion fields, and hence large-field axion inflation, in the absen…

hep-th2020

Constraints on Standard Model Constructions in F-theory

Mirjam Cvetic, James Halverson, Ling Lin +1

We argue that the following three statements cannot all be true: (i) our vacuum is a type IIB / F-theory vacuum at moderate-to-large , (ii) the -expansion is controll…