How to Create Universes with Internal Flux

Abstract

String compactifications typically require fluxes, for example in order to stabilise moduli. Such fluxes, when they thread internal dimensions, are topological in nature and take on quantised values. This poses the puzzle as to how they could arise in the early universe, as they cannot be turned on incrementally. Working with string inspired models in $6$ and $8$ dimensions, we show that there exist no-boundary solutions in which internal fluxes are present from the creation of the universe onwards. The no-boundary proposal can thus explain the origin of fluxes in a Kaluza-Klein context. In fact, it acts as a selection principle since no-boundary solutions are only found to exist when the fluxes have the right magnitude to lead to an effective potential that is positive and flat enough for accelerated expansion. Within the range of selected fluxes, the no-boundary wave function assigns higher probability to smaller values of flux. Our models illustrate how cosmology can act as a filter on a landscape of possible higher-dimensional solutions.

arXiv comment27 pages, 11 figures

References in corpus (31)

• An Alternative to Compactification
• Hierarchies from Fluxes in String Compactifications
• The fundamental constants and their variation: observational status and theoretical motivations
• On the Cosmological Implications of the String Swampland
• Constraints on Low-Dimensional String Compactifications
• One loop in eleven dimensions
• On the Unification Problem in Physics
• Lorentzian Quantum Cosmology
• The Classical Universes of the No-Boundary Quantum State
• No smooth beginning for spacetime
• The Real No-Boundary Wave Function in Lorentzian Quantum Cosmology
• The Probability for Primordial Black Holes
• Populating the Landscape: A Top Down Approach
• A String and M-theory Origin for the Salam-Sezgin Model
• The No-Boundary Proposal as a Path Integral with Robin Boundary Conditions
• What is the No-Boundary Wave Function of the Universe?
• No-boundary prescriptions in Lorentzian quantum cosmology
• Local Observation in Eternal inflation
• On Quantum Tunneling in Real Time
• Classical Inflationary and Ekpyrotic Universes in the No-Boundary Wavefunction
• Cosmological consequences of a principle of finite amplitudes
• On the No-Boundary Proposal for Ekpyrotic and Cyclic Cosmologies
• Lessons for quantum cosmology from anti-de Sitter black holes
• The Wave Function of Simple Universes, Analytically Continued From Negative to Positive Potentials
• On the Creation of the Universe via Ekpyrotic Instantons
• Airy Function and 4d Quantum Gravity
• Quantum tunneling from paths in complex time
• Inflation from $(R+\gamma R^n-2\Lambda )$ Gravity in Higher Dimensions
• Braneworld localisation in hyperbolic spacetime
• No-boundary solutions are robust to quantum gravity corrections
• Taxonomy of Brane Gravity Localisations

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Review of the No-Boundary Wave Function
• Linear perturbations of Kerr black hole in quadratic gravity