A Critique of Pure String Theory: Heterodox Opinions of Diverse Dimensions

Abstract

I present a point of view about what M Theory is and how it is related to the real world, which departs in certain crucial respects from conventional wisdom. I argue against the possibility of a background independent formulation of the theory, or of a Poincare invariant, Supersymmetry violating vacuum state. A fundamental assumption is black hole dominance of high energy physics. Much of this paper is a compilation of things I have said elsewhere. I review a crude argument for the critical exponent connecting the gravitino mass and the cosmological constant, and propose a framework for finding a quantum theory of de Sitter space.

arXiv commentharvmac, 82 pages

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Cited by in corpus (64)

• On the Geometry of the String Landscape and the Swampland
• Entropy Bounds and Dark Energy
• Soft Hair on Black Holes
• Minimal Length Scale Scenarios for Quantum Gravity
• Symmetries of asymptotically flat 4 dimensional spacetimes at null infinity revisited
• Flat Space Amplitudes and Conformal Symmetry of the Celestial Sphere
• Asymptotic Symmetries of Yang-Mills Theory
• Superrotation Charge and Supertranslation Hair on Black Holes
• A Conformal Basis for Flat Space Amplitudes
• Supertranslations and Superrotations at the Black Hole Horizon
• Evidence for a New Soft Graviton Theorem
• Conserved charges of the extended Bondi-Metzner-Sachs algebra
• A 2D Stress Tensor for 4D Gravity
• BMS Particles in Three Dimensions
• Physics of Trans-Planckian Gravity
• Spin memory effect for compact binaries in the post-Newtonian approximation
• Null Infinity and Unitary Representation of The Poincare Group
• Computation of Displacement and Spin Gravitational Memory in Numerical Relativity
• Les Houches Lectures on Strings and Arithmetic
• Loop-Corrected Virasoro Symmetry of 4D Quantum Gravity
• Conformal Basis, Optical Theorem, and the Bulk Point Singularity
• Adding Gravitational Memory to Waveform Catalogs using BMS Balance Laws
• Self-Completeness of Einstein Gravity
• Goedel-type Universes and the Landau Problem
• Holography in asymptotically flat space-times and the BMS group
• The information paradox and the locality bound
• Touring the Hagedorn Ridge
• Centrally extended BMS4 Lie algebroid
• High energy scattering in gravity and supergravity
• Pixelated Dark Energy
• Landskepticism: or Why Effective Potentials Don't Count String Models
• Conformal Structure of Massless Scalar Amplitudes Beyond Tree level
• Symmetries of free massless particles and soft theorems
• Light-ray Operators and the BMS Algebra
• The asymptotic structure of electromagnetism in higher spacetime dimensions
• A Review of Gravitational Memory and BMS Frame Fixing in Numerical Relativity
• Geometry and BMS Lie algebras of spatially isotropic homogeneous spacetimes
• Confined dynamical systems with Carroll or Galilei symmetries
• Closed Timelike Curves and Holography in Compact Plane Waves
• A note on asymptotic symmetries and soft-photon theorem
• Geometric model of black hole quantum $N$-portrait, extradimensions and thermodynamics
• The Symmetries of the Carroll Superparticle
• Local supersymmetry and the square roots of Bondi-Metzner-Sachs supertranslations
• Semiclassical strings in AdS_5 x S^5 and scalar operators in N=4 SYM theory
• On Soft Theorems And Form Factors In N=4 SYM Theory
• Horizon supertranslation and degenerate black hole solutions
• Entropy and initial conditions in cosmology
• Celestial $w_{1+\infty }$ charges and the subleading structure of asymptotically-flat spacetimes
• BMS charges without supertranslation ambiguity
• Supersymmetry Breaking and the Cosmological Constant
• From the Lorentz Group to the Celestial Sphere
• AdS and dS Entropy from String Junctions
• Asymptotic structure of the Rarita-Schwinger theory in four spacetime dimensions at spatial infinity
• Linking Past and Future Null Infinity in Three Dimensions
• Canonical Realization of BMS Symmetry. Quadratic Casimir
• Current Algebra on the Conformal Boundary and the Variables of Quantum Gravity
• The Entropy of the Microwave Background and the Acceleration of the Universe
• Regge-Teitelboim analysis of the symmetries of electromagnetic and gravitational fields on asymptotically null spacelike surfaces
• Holographic bulk reconstruction beyond (super)gravity
• Asymptotic safety and quantum gravity amplitudes
• Relation between Symmetry Groups for Asymptotically Flat Spacetimes
• Non-Relativistic BMS algebra
• Locality and the classical limit of quantum mechanics
• Coexisting Spacetimes in the Solar Neighborhood