The Swampland: Introduction and Review

Abstract

The Swampland program aims to distinguish effective theories which can be completed into quantum gravity in the ultraviolet from those which cannot. This article forms an introduction to the field, assuming only a knowledge of quantum field theory and general relativity. It also forms a comprehensive review, covering the range of ideas that are part of the field, from the Weak Gravity Conjecture, through compactifications of String Theory, to the de Sitter conjecture.

198 Pages, 40 figures. Invited review for Fortschritte der Physik. Partially based on lectures delivered at BUSSTEPP 2018 (Oxford), and lectures to be delivered at SIFTS 2019 (Madrid) and BUSSTEPP 2019 (Glasgow). v2: Fixed typos, added comments and references. v3. More references added and typos fixed

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• Smeared versus localised sources in flux compactifications
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• Positivity of Curvature-Squared Corrections in Gravity
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• Constraining Neutrino Masses, the Cosmological Constant and BSM Physics from the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Sequestered de Sitter String Scenarios: Soft-terms
• The Challenge of Realizing F-term Axion Monodromy Inflation in String Theory
• D7-Brane Moduli Space in Axion Monodromy and Fluxbrane Inflation
• Higgs-otic Inflation and String Theory
• Analytic Classes of Metastable de Sitter Vacua
• Type-IIA flux compactifications and N=4 gauged supergravities
• A second look at N=1 supersymmetric AdS_4 vacua of type IIA supergravity
• The Inflaton as a MSSM Higgs and Open String Modulus Monodromy Inflation
• Can Gravitational Instantons Really Constrain Axion Inflation?
• Towards Axionic Starobinsky-like Inflation in String Theory
• A note on Gauge Theories Coupled to Gravity
• Weak Gravity Conjecture, Multiple Point Principle and the Standard Model Landscape
• Open string multi-branched and Kahler potentials
• Towards large r from [p,q]-inflation
• Axion Monodromy Inflation on Warped Throats
• 8d gauge anomalies and the topological Green-Schwarz mechanism
• Towards the One-loop Kahler Metric of Calabi-Yau Orientifolds
• On Moduli Stabilisation and de Sitter Vacua in MSSM Heterotic Orbifolds
• de Sitter String Vacua from Perturbative Kahler Corrections and Consistent D-terms
• Moduli Stabilisation and Applications in IIB String Theory
• Heavy Tails in Calabi-Yau Moduli Spaces
• Higgs Inflation and the Refined dS Conjecture
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• Three-form multiplet and Inflation
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Cited by in corpus (70)

• Swampland Implications of GW170817-compatible Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Gravity
• Quantum Corrections in 4d N=1 Infinite Distance Limits and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Recent developments in warm inflation
• Trans-Planckian censorship, inflation and excited initial states for perturbations
• Warm brane inflation with an exponential potential: A consistent realization away from the swampland
• The Convex Hull Swampland Distance Conjecture and Bounds on Non-geodesics
• Trans-Planckian censorship and other swampland bothers addressed in warm inflation
• On the Swampland Cobordism Conjecture and Non-Abelian Duality Groups
• On de Sitter String Vacua from Anti-D3-Branes in the Large Volume Scenario
• WGC and WCCC of black holes with quintessence and cloud strings in RPS space
• The trans-Planckian censorship conjecture from the swampland distance conjecture
• Ekpyrotic Cosmology with a Zero-Shear S-Brane
• Dynamical Cobordism Conjecture: Solutions for End-of-the-World Branes
• Asymptotic Safety: Swampland or Wonderland?
• Unified early and late Universe cosmology through dissipative effects in steep quintessential inflation potential models
• Cosmology Intertwined: A Review of the Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Associated with the Cosmological Tensions and Anomalies
• Searching for axion-like particles through CMB birefringence from string-wall networks
• Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture and Non-thermal post-inflationary history
• Reheating after S-Brane Ekpyrosis
• Membrane Limits in Quantum Gravity
• Reissner-Nordström black holes surrounded by perfect fluid dark matter: testing the viability of weak gravity conjecture and weak cosmic censorship conjecture simultaneously
• Strong Cosmic Censorship in light of Weak Gravity Conjecture for Charged Black Holes
• A New Spin on the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Dark Energy, Extra Dimensions, and the Swampland
• Geometric Flow Equations for Schwarzschild-AdS Space-time and Hawking-Page Phase Transition
• Rapidly Descending Dark Energy and the End of Cosmic Expansion
• Weak gravity versus de Sitter
• Supersymmetry Breaking and Stability in String Vacua: brane dynamics, bubbles and the swampland
• WGC and WCC for charged black holes with quintessence and cloud of strings
• The unbearable lightness of charged gravitini
• Revisiting Dudas-Mourad compactifications
• Fermions and the Swampland
• Trans-Planckian Censorship and Inflation in Grand Unified Theories
• Precision axion physics with running axion couplings
• Formation of Chiral Soliton Lattice
• Alleviating Cosmological Tensions with a Coupled Scalar Fields Model
• New class of generalized coupling theories
• Transplanckian Censorship and the Local Swampland Distance Conjecture
• Is Trans-Planckian Censorship a Swampland Conjecture?
• Note on de Sitter vacua from perturbative and non-perturbative dynamics in type IIB/F-theory compactifications
• Quantum gravity constraints on scale separation and de Sitter in five dimensions
• The Black Hole Entropy Distance Conjecture and Black Hole Evaporation
• Moduli stabilization with non-geometric fluxes -- comments on tadpole contributions and de-Sitter vacua
• Geometry of orientifold vacua and supersymmetry breaking
• Composite Inflation and further refining dS swampland conjecture
• Bootstrap bound on extremal Reissner-Nordström black hole in AdS
• Holographic Perspectives On Models Of Moduli Stabilization In M-Theory
• Consistent Kaluza-Klein truncations and two-dimensional gauged supergravity
• Holographic Consistency and the Sign of the Gauss-Bonnet Parameter
• New instabilities for non-supersymmetric AdS${}_4$ orientifold vacua
• Massive AdS Supergravitons and Holography
• Geometric Flow of Bubbles
• On the correspondence between black holes, domain walls and fluxes
• Quantum Higgs Inflation
• A Note on the Swampland Distance Conjecture
• A sufficient condition for counterexamples to the Nelson-Seiberg theorem
• Trans-Planckian Philosophy of Cosmology
• Non-perturbative stabilization of two Kähler moduli in type-IIB/F theory and the inflaton potential
• AdS Swampland Conjectures and Light Fermions
• $\frac{1}{2}$ Calabi-Yau 3-folds, Calabi-Yau 3-folds as double covers, and F-theory with U(1)s
• On the limitations of non-geometric fluxes to realize dS vacua
• Aether SUSY breaking: Can aether be alternative to F-term SUSY breaking?
• Quadratic curvature corrections to stringy effective actions and the absence of de Sitter vacua
• Causality, unitarity and stability in quantum gravity: a non-perturbative perspective
• Stability of BPS States and Weak Coupling Limits
• Constraints on Global Symmetry Breaking in Quantum Gravity from Cosmic Birefringence Measurements
• The four-dimensional null energy condition as a swampland conjecture
• On the Occurrence of Finite-time Singularities in Swampland-related Quintessence Dark Energy Models
• Positivity vs. Lorentz-violation: an explicit example
• Cosmic acceleration from string induced Galileons