Swampland Conjectures for Strings and Membranes

Abstract

Swampland criteria like the Weak Gravity Conjecture should not only apply to particles, but also to other lower-codimension charged objects in 4d EFTs like strings and membranes. However, the description of the latter is in general subtle due to their large backreaction effects. In the context of 4d $\mathcal{N}=1$ EFTs, we consider $\frac{1}{2}$BPS strings and membranes which are fundamental, in the sense that they cannot be resolved within the EFT regime. We argue that, if interpreted from the EFT viewpoint, the 4d backreaction of these objects translates into a classical RG flow of their couplings. Constraints on the UV charges and tensions get then translated to constraints on the axionic kinetic terms and scalar potential of the EFT. This uncovers new relations among the Swampland Conjectures, which become interconnected by the physical properties of low-codimension objects. In particular, using that string RG flows describe infinite field distance limits, we show that the WGC for strings implies the Swampland Distance Conjecture. Similarly, WGC-saturating membranes generate a scalar potential satisfying the de Sitter Conjecture.

57 pages + appendices, 12 figures; v2: typos corrected

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Cited by in corpus (51)

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• Quantum Corrections in 4d N=1 Infinite Distance Limits and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Chern-Weil Global Symmetries and How Quantum Gravity Avoids Them
• Sharpening the Distance Conjecture in Diverse Dimensions
• Tackling the SDC in AdS with CFTs
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• Finiteness and the Swampland
• Holography and the KKLT Scenario
• A Gravitino Distance Conjecture
• EFT strings and emergence
• Moduli Space Holography and the Finiteness of Flux Vacua
• Moduli Stabilization in Asymptotic Flux Compactifications
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• Phases of Holographic Interfaces
• Asymptotic Safety: Swampland or Wonderland?
• Emergence of Species Scale Black Hole Horizons
• On Higher-Spin Points and Infinite Distances in Conformal Manifolds
• The Weak Gravity Conjecture and Axion Strings
• Physics of Infinite Complex Structure Limits in eight Dimensions
• Bulk Reconstruction in Moduli Space Holography
• The Asymptotic Weak Gravity Conjecture in M-theory
• Membrane Limits in Quantum Gravity
• Tameness, Strings, and the Distance Conjecture
• Supersymmetry Breaking and Stability in String Vacua: brane dynamics, bubbles and the swampland
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• New Supersymmetric String Theories from Discrete Theta Angles
• Small Black Hole Explosions
• Quantum Gravity Bounds on N=1 Effective Theories in Four Dimensions
• 4d strings at strong coupling
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• BIonic membranes and AdS instabilities
• Finiteness and the Emergence of Dualities
• Modular Curves and the Refined Distance Conjecture
• Light Strings and Strong Coupling in F-theory
• New instabilities for non-supersymmetric AdS${}_4$ orientifold vacua
• Emergent Strings in Type IIB Calabi--Yau Compactifications
• A CFT Distance Conjecture
• Cosmic (super)strings with a time-varying tension
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• The Gravitino Swampland Conjecture
• Infinite distances in multicritical CFTs and higher-spin holography
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Swampland: The Cosmologist's Handbook to the string-theoretical Swampland Programme
• Supersymmetry breaking, brane dynamics and Swampland conjectures
• Stabilization of a twisted modulus on a mirror of rigid Calabi-Yau manifold
• Stability of BPS States and Weak Coupling Limits
• At the End of the World: Local Dynamical Cobordism
• Non-supersymmetric heterotic strings on $Ad{S}_4\times S^3\times S^3$
• A domain wall bound on anti-de Sitter vacua
• Dynamical Tadpoles and Weak Gravity Constraints