Connecting flux vacua through scalar field excursions

Abstract

We show how flux vacua that differ from each other in flux quanta can be seen as different vacua in a single scalar potential of an enlarged field space, which resolves the separation by thin domain walls. This observation, which is motivated by the AdS Distance Conjecture, allows one to compute distances between different vacua using the usual field space metric. We verify for explicit examples such as scale-seperated IIA flux vacua and the IIB Freund-Rubin vacua that the Distance Conjecture (for scalar fields) is satisfied and that the asymptotic directions in the enlarged field space are indeed hyperbolic. This enlarged field space contains the tachyon fields on the unstable $\tilde{\mathrm{D}}p$-branes of type II string theory, which can induce the brane charges of the stable D-branes. We suggest that requiring continuous interpolations refines the Cobordism Conjecture and postdicts the existence of unstable $\tilde{\mathrm{D}}p$-branes.

arXiv comment6 pages + appendices, 2 figures; v2: Minor changes, accepted version in PRD

References in corpus (17)

• Hierarchies from Fluxes in String Compactifications
• On the Geometry of the String Landscape and the Swampland
• M Theory, Orientifolds and G-Flux
• Tachyon Condensation on the Brane Antibrane System
• Tachyon Dynamics in Open String Theory
• Brane/Flux Annihilation and the String Dual of a Non-Supersymmetric Field Theory
• Type IIA Moduli Stabilization
• AdS and the Swampland
• Fluxes, moduli fixing and MSSM-like vacua in a simple IIA orientifold
• N=1 effective potential from dual type-IIA D6/O6 orientifolds with general fluxes
• Super-Planckian Spatial Field Variations and Quantum Gravity
• Non-BPS States and Branes in String Theory
• Scale-separated AdS${}_4$ vacua of IIA orientifolds and M-theory
• Ramond-Ramond couplings of non-BPS D-branes
• D-Sphalerons and the Topology of String Configuration Space
• AdS scale separation and the distance conjecture
• Non-Supersymmetric AdS from String Theory

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Finiteness and the Emergence of Dualities
• On Measuring Distances in the Quantum Gravity Landscape
• Tame Complexity of Effective Field Theories in the Quantum Gravity Landscape