On Isolated Vacua and Background Independence

Abstract

I argue that isolated vacua of M-theory, cannot in any conventional way be said to live in the same theory as other disconnected parts of the moduli space. The usual field theoretic mechanisms, which allow an observer in one disconnected component of a moduli space to verify the existence of other components, fail. The failure is a consequence of robust properties of black holes. When barriers between components are much smaller than the Planck scale, the usual field theoretic picture is approximately valid.

JHEP LaTeX, 13 pages. Various comments added in response to correspondents' questions. In particular, generality of the result beyond the context of N=1 SUSY is given more emphasis

References in corpus (3)

• A Model for High Energy Scattering in Quantum Gravity
• Note on the Quantum Mechanics of M Theory
• On The Universality Class Of Little String Theories

Cited by in corpus (6)

• A Critique of Pure String Theory: Heterodox Opinions of Diverse Dimensions
• Supersymmetry Changing Bubbles in String Theory
• Entropy and initial conditions in cosmology
• Supersymmetry Breaking and the Cosmological Constant
• On the Limits of Effective Quantum Field Theory: Eternal Inflation, Landscapes, and Other Mythical Beasts
• Pedagogical notes on black holes, de Sitter space, and bifurcated horizons