Vacua with Small Flux Superpotential

Abstract

We describe a method for finding flux vacua of type IIB string theory in which the Gukov-Vafa-Witten superpotential is exponentially small. We present an example with $W_0\approx 2\times 10^{-8}$ on an orientifold of a Calabi-Yau hypersurface with $(h^{1,1},h^{2,1})=(2,272)$, at large complex structure and weak string coupling.

5 pages, 1 figure. v2: refs added, minor corrections, results unchanged