A Species or Weak-Gravity Bound for Large $N$ Gauge Theories Coupled to Gravity

Abstract

Causality constrains the gravitational interactions of massive higher spin particles in both AdS and flat spacetime. We explore the extent to which these constraints apply to composite particles, explaining why they do not rule out macroscopic objects or hydrogen atoms. However, we find that they do apply to glueballs and mesons in confining large $N$ gauge theories. Assuming such theories contain massive bound states of general spin, we find parametric bounds in $(3+1)$ spacetime dimensions of the form $N\lesssim \frac{M_{Pl}}{{\Lambda }_{\text{QCD}}}$ relating $N$, the QCD scale, and the Planck scale. We also argue that a stronger bound replacing ${\Lambda }_{\text{QCD}}$ with the UV cut-off scale may be derived from eikonal scattering in flat spacetime.

arXiv comment44 pages + appendices, multiple figures

References in corpus (22)

• A bound on chaos
• The String Landscape, Black Holes and Gravity as the Weakest Force
• A Covariant Entropy Conjecture
• Implications of Conformal Invariance in Field Theories for General Dimensions
• Holographic c-theorems in arbitrary dimensions
• Causality Constraints on Corrections to the Graviton Three-Point Coupling
• Black Holes and Large N Species Solution to the Hierarchy Problem
• Thermodynamics of the QCD plasma and the large-N limit
• Conserved Currents and the Energy Momentum Tensor in Conformally Invariant Theories for General Dimensions
• Relative entropy and the Bekenstein bound
• Averaged Null Energy Condition from Causality
• Causality Constraints in Conformal Field Theory
• Effective Conformal Theory and the Flat-Space Limit of AdS
• AdS/CFT 4-point functions: How to succeed at z-integrals without really trying
• A Proof of the Conformal Collider Bounds
• Large-N bounds on, and compositeness limit of, gauge and gravitational interactions
• Einstein gravity 3-point functions from conformal field theory
• A New Spin on Causality Constraints
• Massive Higher Spins: Effective Theory and Consistency
• A Conformal Collider for Holographic CFTs
• A Bound on Massive Higher Spin Particles
• Anomalous Dimensions of Non-Chiral Operators from AdS/CFT

Cited by in corpus (11)

• The Weak Gravity Conjecture: A Review
• Festina Lente: EFT Constraints from Charged Black Hole Evaporation in de Sitter
• Gravitational Causality and the Self-Stress of Photons
• A Conjecture on the Minimal Size of Bound States
• Swampland Conditions for Higher Derivative Couplings from CFT
• Closed Strings and Weak Gravity from Higher-Spin Causality
• Confinement in de Sitter Space and the Swampland
• Large $N$-ightmare Dark Matter
• Causality Constraints in Large $N$ QCD Coupled to Gravity
• Renormalization Group Flows, the $a$-Theorem and Conformal Bootstrap
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Swampland: The Cosmologist's Handbook to the string-theoretical Swampland Programme