A Spin-2 Conjecture on the Swampland

Abstract

We consider effective theories with massive fields that have spins larger than or equal to two. We conjecture a universal cutoff scale on any such theory that depends on the lightest mass of such fields. This cutoff corresponds to the mass scale of an infinite tower of states, signalling the breakdown of the effective theory. The cutoff can be understood as the Weak Gravity Conjecture applied to the Stückelberg gauge field in the mass term of the high spin fields. A strong version of our conjecture applies even if the graviton itself is massive, so to massive gravity. We provide further evidence for the conjecture from string theory.

6 pages. v2. Added references

References in corpus (32)

• Resummation of Massive Gravity
• Tests of general relativity with GW150914
• The String Landscape, Black Holes and Gravity as the Weakest Force
• Massive Gravity
• Nonlinear W(infinity) Algebra as Asymptotic Symmetry of Three-Dimensional Higher Spin Anti-de Sitter Gravity
• Black Holes and Large N Species Solution to the Hierarchy Problem
• Infinite Distances in Field Space and Massless Towers of States
• Gauge Invariances and Phases of Massive Higher Spins in (A)dS
• Wormholes, Emergent Gauge Fields, and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Tensionless Strings and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Super-Planckian Spatial Field Variations and Quantum Gravity
• The Weak Gravity Conjecture and Scalar Fields
• Quantum Compositeness of Gravity: Black Holes, AdS and Inflation
• Evidence for a Lattice Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Sharpening the Weak Gravity Conjecture with Dimensional Reduction
• Beyond Amplitudes' Positivity and the Fate of Massive Gravity
• A Tower Weak Gravity Conjecture from Infrared Consistency
• Quantum Break-Time of de Sitter
• The Weak Gravity Conjecture and Emergence from an Ultraviolet Cutoff
• Predictive Power of Strong Coupling in Theories with Large Distance Modified Gravity
• Evaporation of Microscopic Black Holes in String Theory and the Bound on Species
• On Partially Massless Bimetric Gravity
• Product CFTs, gravitational cloning, massive gravitons and the space of gravitational duals
• Higher Derivative Gravity and Conformal Gravity From Bimetric and Partially Massless Bimetric Theory
• A Conformal Collider for Holographic CFTs
• Massive Anti-de Sitter Gravity from String Theory
• Quantum Gates to other Universes
• Classicality and Quantum Break-Time for Cosmic Axions
• Aspects of Weyl Supergravity
• Supersymmetric Partially Massless Fields and Non-Unitary Superconformal Representations
• Spin-four N=7 W-Supergravity: S-fold and Double Copy Construction
• Ghost-free infinite derivative gravity

Cited by in corpus (31)

• The Swampland: Introduction and Review
• Festina Lente: EFT Constraints from Charged Black Hole Evaporation in de Sitter
• Modular Fluxes, Elliptic Genera, and Weak Gravity Conjectures in Four Dimensions
• Swampland Variations on a Theme by KKLT
• The Gravitino and the Swampland
• Quantum Log-Corrections to Swampland Conjectures
• Asymptotic safety, string theory and the weak gravity conjecture
• $H_0$ tension and the String Swampland
• Quantum aspects of chaos and complexity from bouncing cosmology: A study with two-mode single field squeezed state formalism
• Physics of Infinite Complex Structure Limits in eight Dimensions
• Swampland, Gradient Flow and Infinite Distance
• On TCS $G_2$ manifolds and 4D Emergent Strings
• A Note on String Excitations and the Higuchi Bound
• Fermions and the Swampland
• Spin-2 and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Closed Strings and Weak Gravity from Higher-Spin Causality
• Islands and Light Gravitons in type IIB String Theory
• de Sitter Bubbles and the Swampland
• De Sitter Quantum Breaking, Swampland Conjectures and Thermal Strings
• Massive AdS Supergravitons and Holography
• Causality Constraints in Large $N$ QCD Coupled to Gravity
• Supersymmetric Massive Gravity
• A Note on the dS Swampland Conjecture, Non-BPS branes and K-theory
• S-dual Inflation and the String Swampland
• A Note on the Swampland Distance Conjecture
• dS Spaces and Brane Worlds in Exotic String Theories
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Swampland: The Cosmologist's Handbook to the string-theoretical Swampland Programme
• Higher spin swampland conjecture for massive AdS${}_3$ gravity
• Cheeger bounds on spin-two fields
• The string theory swampland in the Euclid, SKA and Vera Rubin observatory era
• A unique coupling of the massive spin-2 field to supergravity