Weak Gravity Conjecture from Unitarity and Causality

Abstract

The weak gravity conjecture states that quantum gravity theories have to contain a charged state with a charge-to-mass ratio bigger than unity. By studying unitarity and causality constraints on higher derivative corrections to the charge-to-mass ratio of extremal back holes, we demonstrate that heavy extremal black holes can play the role of the required charged state under several assumptions. In particular, our argument is applicable when the higher spin states Reggeizing graviton exchange are subdominant in the photon scattering. It covers (1) theories with light neutral bosons such as dilaton and moduli, and (2) UV completion where the photon and the graviton are accompanied by different sets of Regge states just like open string theory. Our result provides an existence proof of the weak gravity conjecture in a wide class of theories, including generic string theory setups with the dilaton or other moduli stabilized below the string scale.

arXiv comment7+10 pages, 3 figures; v2: referecnes added, unitarity bounds on entropy corrections included

References in corpus (33)

• Black Hole Entropy is Noether Charge
• The String Landscape, Black Holes and Gravity as the Weakest Force
• Massive Gravity
• Causality, Analyticity and an IR Obstruction to UV Completion
• Causality Constraints on Corrections to the Graviton Three-Point Coupling
• Entropy of Lovelock Black Holes
• Wormholes, Emergent Gauge Fields, and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Tensionless Strings and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Higher-order corrections to mass-charge relation of extremal black holes
• Evidence for a Lattice Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Sharpening the Weak Gravity Conjecture with Dimensional Reduction
• The Weak Gravity Conjecture in three dimensions
• Proof of the Weak Gravity Conjecture from Black Hole Entropy
• A Tower Weak Gravity Conjecture from Infrared Consistency
• Softness and Amplitudes' Positivity for Spinning Particles
• Infrared Consistency and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Testing the Weak Gravity -- Cosmic Censorship Connection
• Einstein gravity 3-point functions from conformal field theory
• On Axionic Field Ranges, Loopholes and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Positivity of Curvature-Squared Corrections in Gravity
• Universal Bounds on Charged States in 2d CFT and 3d Gravity
• Evidence for an Electrifying Violation of Cosmic Censorship
• Weak Gravity Conjecture in AdS/CFT
• Conformal Bootstrap in the Regge Limit
• Cosmic Censorship and Weak Gravity Conjecture in the Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory
• Constraining Neutrino Masses, the Cosmological Constant and BSM Physics from the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Topological deformation of isolated horizons
• Weak Gravity Conjecture, Multiple Point Principle and the Standard Model Landscape
• Second Law Violations in Lovelock Gravity for Black Hole Mergers
• A Conformal Collider for Holographic CFTs
• The Weak Gravity Conjecture and the Axionic Black Hole Paradox
• The Fundamental Need for a SM Higgs and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• AdS-phobia, the WGC, the Standard Model and Supersymmetry

Cited by in corpus (115)

• Lectures on the Swampland Program in String Compactifications
• A Stringy Test of the Scalar Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Extremal Effective Field Theories
• Amplitudes' Positivity, Weak Gravity Conjecture, and Modified Gravity
• The Weak Gravity Conjecture: A Review
• Repulsive Forces and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Festina Lente: EFT Constraints from Charged Black Hole Evaporation in de Sitter
• Causality, Unitarity, and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Branes and the Swampland
• Modular Fluxes, Elliptic Genera, and Weak Gravity Conjectures in Four Dimensions
• Positivity Bounds and the Massless Spin-2 Pole
• A Holographic Derivation of the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• A Universal Relation Between Corrections to Entropy and Extremality
• The Speed of Gravity
• QED positivity bounds
• Rigorous Bounds on Light-by-Light Scattering
• Reverse Bootstrapping: IR lessons for UV physics
• Thermodynamics of 4D Dilatonic Black Holes and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Natural Selection Rules: New Positivity Bounds for Massive Spinning Particles
• The FL bound and its phenomenological implications
• Finiteness and the Swampland
• Massless Positivity in Graviton Exchange
• Existence and Instability of Novel Hairy Black Holes in Shift-symmetric Horndeski Theories
• A Strong Scalar Weak Gravity Conjecture and Some Implications
• Bounding Violations of the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Duality and Axionic Weak Gravity
• Implications of the Weak Gravity Conjecture for Tidal Love Numbers of Black Holes
• Weak Gravity Conjecture from Conformal Field Theory: A Challenge from Hyperscaling Violating and Kerr-Newman-AdS Black Holes
• Electromagnetic Quasitopological Gravities
• Causality Constraints on Black Holes beyond GR
• Unitarity bounds on charged/neutral state mass ratio
• Dynamical Constraints on RG Flows and Cosmology
• String gravity in $D=4$
• On the extremality bound of stringy black holes
• Positivity Bounds without Boosts
• Asymptotic Safety: Swampland or Wonderland?
• Heavy Spinning Particles from Signs of Primordial Non-Gaussianities: Beyond the Positivity Bounds
• Massive Gravity is not Positive
• Minimal Black Holes and Species Thermodynamics
• Emergence of Species Scale Black Hole Horizons
• Is the Standard Model in the Swampland? Consistency Requirements from Gravitational Scattering
• The emergence of universal relations in the AdS black holes thermodynamics
• On the weak gravity conjecture in string theory with broken supersymmetry
• A cautionary case of casual causality
• Putting the Boot into the Swampland
• Duality and Supersymmetry Constraints on the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Sudden breakdown of effective field theory near cool Kerr-Newman black holes
• The Black Hole Weak Gravity Conjecture with Multiple Charges
• Relating the scalar weak gravity conjecture and the swampland distance conjecture for an accelerating universe
• A universal formula for the density of states in theories with finite-group symmetry
• A New Spin on the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Weak Gravity Conjecture, Black Hole Entropy, and Modular Invariance
• Duality-invariant extensions of Einstein-Maxwell theory
• Scale and quality of Peccei-Quinn symmetry and weak gravity conjectures
• $D=5$ Rotating Black Holes in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Gravity: Mass and Angular Momentum in Extremality
• WGC and WCC for charged black holes with quintessence and cloud of strings
• Stringy corrections to the entropy of electrically charged supersymmetric black holes with ${\mathrm{AdS}}_5\times S^5$ asymptotics
• Minimal Surfaces and Weak Gravity
• A NUT Charge Weak Gravity Conjecture from Dimensional Reduction
• The Weak Scale from Weak Gravity
• Towards a proof of the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• The Standard Model from String Theory: What Have We Learned?
• The shape of Scalar Gauss-Bonnet Gravity
• Higher-derivative holography with a chemical potential
• The Weak Gravity Conjecture Requires the Existence of Exotic AdS Black Holes
• Running Love Numbers and the Effective Field Theory of Gravity
• Axion wormholes with massive dilaton
• Finite energy sum rules for gravitational Regge amplitudes
• Corrections to Extremal Black Holes from Iyer-Wald Formalism
• Higher derivative corrections to black brane thermodynamics and the weak gravity conjecture
• Repulsive Black Holes and Higher-Derivatives
• The EFT Bootstrap at Finite $M_{PL}$
• The Entropy Shift and Extremality Shift at Zero Temperature
• Universal thermodynamic relations with constant corrections for rotating AdS black holes
• Closed Strings and Weak Gravity from Higher-Spin Causality
• On (Scalar QED) Gravitational Positivity Bounds
• From Rotating to Charged Black Holes and Back Again
• Causality and quasi-normal modes in the GREFT
• Swampland Bounds on Dark Sectors
• Positivity bounds in vector theories
• Towards a complete classification of 6D supergravities
• Black Hole Extremality in Nonlinear Electrodynamics: A Lesson for Weak Gravity and Festina Lente Bounds
• Non-Forward UV/IR Relations
• Gravity-Induced Photon Interactions and Infrared Consistency in any Dimensions
• Gravitational Positivity for Phenomenologists: Dark Gauge Boson in the Swampland
• Non-linearly ghost-free higher curvature gravity
• Entropy constraints on effective field theory
• Asymptotic safety, quantum gravity, and the swampland: a conceptual assessment
• Highly compact Proca stars with quartic self-interactions
• Thermodynamic extremality relations in the massive gravity
• Generalizing weak gravity conjecture
• Universal thermodynamic extremality relations for charged AdS black hole surrounded by quintessence
• Exact electromagnetic duality with nonminimal couplings
• Superstring Amplitudes, Unitarity, and Hankel Determinants of Multiple Zeta Values
• Lectures in Quantum Gravity
• Holographic Dual of The Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Swampland: The Cosmologist's Handbook to the string-theoretical Swampland Programme
• Effective field theory in light of relative entropy
• Unitarity and unstable-particle scattering amplitudes
• Higher-Derivative Corrections to Entropy and the Weak Gravity Conjecture in Anti-de Sitter Space
• A Weak Gravity Theorem
• Higher-Derivative Supergravity, AdS${}_4$ Holography, and Black Holes
• Positivity in Amplitudes and Quantum Entanglement
• EFT Corrections to Charged Black Hole Quasinormal Modes
• De Sitter space constraints on brane tensions and couplings
• Gravitational Positivity Bounds on Scalar Potentials
• Solar System Constraints on Light Propagation from Higher Derivative Corrections to General Relativity and Implications for Fundamental Physics
• ISCOs and the weak gravity conjecture bound in higher derivative theories of gravity
• The IR-Side of Positivity Bounds
• Extremal Love: tidal/electromagnetic deformability, logarithmic running and the weak gravity conjecture
• Non-supersymmetric black holes with ${\alpha }^{\prime }$ corrections
• Positivity vs. Lorentz-violation: an explicit example
• Holography, Supergravity, and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Consistency between Bulk and Boundary Causalities in Asymptotically Anti-de Sitter Spacetimes
• Geometric unification theory of the grand unification and gravitational interactions and new physics