Small Cosmological Constants in String Theory

Abstract

We construct supersymmetric ${\mathrm{AdS}}_4$ vacua of type IIB string theory in compactifications on orientifolds of Calabi-Yau threefold hypersurfaces. We first find explicit orientifolds and quantized fluxes for which the superpotential takes the form proposed by Kachru, Kallosh, Linde, and Trivedi. Given very mild assumptions on the numerical values of the Pfaffians, these compactifications admit vacua in which all moduli are stabilized at weak string coupling. By computing high-degree Gopakumar-Vafa invariants we give strong evidence that the ${\alpha }^{\prime }$ expansion is likewise well-controlled. We find extremely small cosmological constants, with magnitude $<10^{-123}$ in Planck units. The compactifications are large, but not exponentially so, and hence these vacua manifest hierarchical scale-separation, with the AdS length exceeding the Kaluza-Klein length by a factor of a googol.

55 pages, 6 figures, one appendix. A summary of these results appears in the companion paper arXiv:2107.09065. Compactification data included in ancillary files. v2: typos fixed, references added. v3: extended discussion, typos fixed, results unchanged; matches version published in JHEP

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