Is There A String Theory Landscape

Abstract

We examine recent claims of a large set of flux compactification solutions of string theory. We conclude that the arguments for AdS solutions are plausible. The analysis of meta-stable dS solutions inevitably leads to situations where long distance effective field theory breaks down. We then examine whether these solutions are likely to lead to a description of the real world. We conclude that one must invoke a strong version of the anthropic principle. We explain why it is likely that this leads to a prediction of low energy supersymmetry breaking, but that many features of anthropically selected flux compactifications are likely to disagree with experiment.

39 pages, Latex, ``Terminology surrounding the anthropic principle revised to conform with accepted usage. More history of the anthropic principle included. Various references added."

References in corpus (6)

• de Sitter Vacua in String Theory
• The statistics of string/M theory vacua
• Distributions of flux vacua
• Counting Flux Vacua
• On the Possibility of Large Axion Decay Constants
• Supersymmetry, Axions and Cosmology

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