The String Landscape and the Swampland

Abstract

Recent developments in string theory suggest that string theory landscape of vacua is vast. It is natural to ask if this landscape is as vast as allowed by consistent-looking effective field theories. We use universality ideas from string theory to suggest that this is not the case, and that the landscape is surrounded by an even more vast swampland of consistent-looking semiclassical effective field theories, which are actually inconsistent. Identification of the boundary of the landscape is a central question which is at the heart of the meaning of universality properties of consistent quantum gravitational theories. We propose certain finiteness criteria as one relevant factor in identifying this boundary (based on talks given at the Einstein Symposium in Alexandria, at the 2005 Simons Workshop in Mathematics and Physics, and the talk to have been presented at Strings 2005).

9 pages, minor additions and corrections

References in corpus (3)

• N-flation
• String Islands
• Weil-Petersson Volumes of the Moduli Spaces of CY Manifolds

Cited by in corpus (280)

• The String Landscape, Black Holes and Gravity as the Weakest Force
• On the Geometry of the String Landscape and the Swampland
• Causality, Analyticity and an IR Obstruction to UV Completion
• Four-dimensional String Compactifications with D-Branes, Orientifolds and Fluxes
• On the Cosmological Implications of the String Swampland
• Starting the Universe: Stable Violation of the Null Energy Condition and Non-standard Cosmologies
• New physics in light of the $H_0$ tension: an alternative view
• Effect of curvature squared corrections in AdS on the viscosity of the dual gauge theory
• Lectures on the Swampland Program in String Compactifications
• Infinite Distances in Field Space and Massless Towers of States
• The CosmoVerse White Paper: Addressing observational tensions in cosmology with systematics and fundamental physics
• Tensionless Strings and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Higher-order corrections to mass-charge relation of extremal black holes
• Gravity Dual of Spatially Modulated Phase
• A review of Axion Inflation in the era of Planck
• Non-thermal Dark Matter and the Moduli Problem in String Frameworks
• The Swampland Distance Conjecture for Kahler moduli
• Global aspects of the space of 6D N = 1 supergravities
• D-branes at Singularities, Compactification, and Hypercharge
• Euclidean wormholes, baby universes, and their impact on particle physics and cosmology
• Generalized Flux Vacua
• Weak Gravity Strongly Constrains Large-Field Axion Inflation
• Statistics on the Heterotic Landscape: Gauge Groups and Cosmological Constants of Four-Dimensional Heterotic Strings
• Gauged Supergravities
• Geometric Engineering, Mirror Symmetry and 6d (1,0) -> 4d, N=2
• A note on Inflation and the Swampland
• On the Possibility of Large Axion Moduli Spaces
• Holographic Quantum Critical Transport without Self-Duality
• Asymptotic Flux Compactifications and the Swampland
• Topological Operators and Completeness of Spectrum in Discrete Gauge Theories
• String universality in ten dimensions
• On Axionic Field Ranges, Loopholes and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Dark energy in light of the early JWST observations: case for a negative cosmological constant?
• Positivity of Curvature-Squared Corrections in Gravity
• Life at the Interface of Particle Physics and String Theory
• Instantons and infinite distances
• Causality, Unitarity, and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• A Holographic Derivation of the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• The String Landscape, the Swampland, and the Missing Corner
• QED positivity bounds
• Avoiding the string swampland in single-field inflation: Excited initial states
• Decoupling Supergravity from the Superstring
• Flat Monodromies and a Moduli Space Size Conjecture
• IR/UV Mixing, Towers of Species and Swampland Conjectures
• The Global Gauge Group Structure of F-theory Compactification with U(1)s
• Beyond Standard Models and Grand Unifications: Anomalies, Topological Terms, and Dynamical Constraints via Cobordisms
• Entropy Bounds on Effective Field Theory from Rotating Dyonic Black Holes
• Negative cosmological constant in the dark energy sector: tests from JWST photometric and spectroscopic observations of high-redshift galaxies
• A bound on 6D N=1 supergravities
• Challenges for String Cosmology
• Closed String Thermodynamics and a Blue Tensor Spectrum
• The Gravitino and the Swampland
• Tackling the SDC in AdS with CFTs
• Hot QCD Phase Diagram From Holographic Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton Models
• Weak Gravity Conjecture, Multiple Point Principle and the Standard Model Landscape
• Thermodynamics of 4D Dilatonic Black Holes and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Exploring the Vacuum Geometry of N=1 Gauge Theories
• The FL bound and its phenomenological implications
• Self-Organised Localisation
• Finiteness and the Swampland
• Compactness of Brane Moduli and the String Lamppost Principle in $d>6$
• A Gravitino Distance Conjecture
• On the Swampland Cobordism Conjecture and Non-Abelian Duality Groups
• On Conformal Field Theories With Extremal a/c Values
• Supersymmetric Protection and the Swampland
• The Effective Theory of Shift-Symmetric Cosmologies
• Exploring The Holographic Swampland
• The anomaly that was not meant IIB
• Reconstruction of quintessence field for the THDE with swampland correspondence in $f(R,T)$ gravity
• A Note on the WGC, Effective Field Theory and Clockwork within String Theory
• Catastrophic Production of Slow Gravitinos
• Gauged 2-form Symmetries in 6D SCFTs Coupled to Gravity
• Duality and Axionic Weak Gravity
• Who You Gonna Call? Runaway Ghosts, Higher Derivatives and Time-Dependence in EFTs
• Constraints on the spectral index for the inflation models in string landscape
• $H_0$ tension and the String Swampland
• An Axion-induced SM/MSSM Higgs Landscape and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Dilaton Dynamics from Production of Tensionless Membranes
• Swampland conjecture in $f(R)$ gravity by the Noether Symmetry Approach
• Small-Field and Scale-Free: Inflation and Ekpyrosis at their Extremes
• Emergent Cosmology from Matrix Theory
• A Finite Landscape?
• Stability, enhanced gauge symmetry and suppressed cosmological constant in 9D heterotic interpolating models
• Infinite Black Hole Entropies at Infinite Distances and Tower of States
• A hint of matter underdensity at low $z$?
• Is the Standard Model in the Swampland? Consistency Requirements from Gravitational Scattering
• Searching for axion-like particles through CMB birefringence from string-wall networks
• Special Geometry and the Swampland
• Exploring 6D origins of 5D supergravities with Chern-Simons terms
• The Fundamental Need for a SM Higgs and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Quantum Critical Dynamics from Black Holes
• One Loop to Rule Them All: Eight and Nine Dimensional String Vacua from Junctions
• Probing Dynamics of Boson Stars by Fast Radio Bursts and Gravitational Wave Detection
• What does Inflation say about Dark Energy given the Swampland Conjectures?
• On non-universal Goldstino couplings to matter
• On the weak gravity conjecture in string theory with broken supersymmetry
• Putting the Boot into the Swampland
• (Quasi-) de Sitter solutions across dimensions and the TCC bound
• Stability and vacuum energy in open string models with broken supersymmetry
• Membrane Limits in Quantum Gravity
• Relating the scalar weak gravity conjecture and the swampland distance conjecture for an accelerating universe
• Swampland Constraints on Neutrino Masses
• Higher Derivative Supergravities in Diverse Dimensions
• Large Field Ranges from Aligned and Misaligned Winding
• Revisiting the Scalar Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Geometric Precipices in String Cosmology
• Quantum gravity and the zero point length
• The Entropic Landscape
• Three-dimensional flux vacua from IIB on co-calibrated G2 orientifolds
• Duality-invariant extensions of Einstein-Maxwell theory
• Scrambling and decoding the charged quantum information
• No Forbidden Landscape in String/M-theory
• A Weak Gravity Conjecture for Scalar Field Theories
• Moduli Stabilisation and the Holographic Swampland
• Regular Black Hole Interior Spacetime Supported by Three-Form Field
• Rescuing Massive Photons from the Swampland
• Swampland Conditions for Higher Derivative Couplings from CFT
• On the Origin of Species Thermodynamics and the Black Hole - Tower Correspondence
• A Conjecture on the Minimal Size of Bound States
• Trans-Planckian Censorship and Inflation in Grand Unified Theories
• Pair Production and Gravity as the Weakest Force
• Inflation, Higher Spins and the Swampland
• Orientifold Calabi-Yau Threefolds with Divisor Involutions and String Landscape
• Cascading to the MSSM
• Anisotropic Hyperbolic Inflation
• Shifted $\mu$-hybrid inflation, gravitino dark matter, and observable gravity waves
• Constraining braneworlds with entanglement entropy
• Seeing through the String Landscape - a String Hunter's Companion in Particle Physics and Cosmology
• RG-Induced Modulus Stabilization: Perturbative de Sitter Vacua and Improved $D3$-$\overline{D3}$ Inflation
• De Sitter and Anti-de Sitter branes in self-tuning models
• Quantum Fine-Tuning in Stringy Quintessence Models
• Runaway in the Landscape
• Minimal Supergravity Inflation without Slow Gravitino
• Axion Periodicity and Coupling Quantization in the Presence of Mixing
• A Note on 4D Heterotic String Vacua, FI-terms and the Swampland
• Gauge sector statistics of intersecting D-brane models
• Chiral Supergravity
• Swampland Criteria in the Slotheon Field Dark Energy
• Artificial Neural Network in Cosmic Landscape
• Thraxions: Towards Full String Models
• Axion Landscape Cosmology
• Inflation Expels Runaways
• Finite electrodynamics from T-duality
• Theoretical Limits on Agegraphic Quintessence from Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Fencing in the Swampland: Quantum Gravity Constraints on Large Field Inflation
• A Comment on Continuous Spin Representations of the Poincaré Group and Perturbative String Theory
• Quantum gravity constraints on scale separation and de Sitter in five dimensions
• BIonic membranes and AdS instabilities
• Note on de Sitter vacua from perturbative and non-perturbative dynamics in type IIB/F-theory compactifications
• An Introduction to Effective Field Theories
• Moduli spaces of Calabi-Yau $d$-folds as gravitational-chiral instantons
• Universal thermodynamic relations with constant corrections for rotating AdS black holes
• Time reversal and $\mathbf{CP}$ invariance in Calabi-Yau compactifications
• Dark energy, Ricci-nonflat spaces, and the Swampland
• Finiteness and the Emergence of Dualities
• Geometry of orientifold vacua and supersymmetry breaking
• Charge completeness and the massless charge lattice in F-theory models of supergravity
• SUGRA/Strings like to be bald
• Fibre inflation and precision CMB data
• Weak Gravity Conjecture for the Effective Field Theories with N Species
• On the Limits of Effective Quantum Field Theory: Eternal Inflation, Landscapes, and Other Mythical Beasts
• Virtual and Thermal Schwinger Processes
• Holographic Perspectives On Models Of Moduli Stabilization In M-Theory
• Statistical Predictions From Anarchic Field Theory Landscapes
• String Theory, the Dark Sector and the Hierarchy Problem
• Modular Curves and the Refined Distance Conjecture
• Cosmic Censorship for AdS${}_5$-Kerr
• Rigid Limit in N=2 Supergravity and Weak-Gravity Conjecture
• Remarks on the effects of quantum corrections on moduli stabilization and de Sitter vacua in type IIB string theory
• Beta Function Quintessence Cosmological Parameters and Fundamental Constants II: Exponential and Logarithmic Dark Energy Potentials
• Conformal Symmetries for Extremal Black Holes with General Asymptotic Scalars in STU Supergravity
• Probing the Dark Dimension with Auger data
• Holography Abhors Visible Trapped Surfaces
• Constraints on low-energy effective theories from weak cosmic censorship
• Quantum Information Theory of the Gravitational Anomaly
• Leading Logs in QCD Axion Effective Field Theory
• Visions in Quantum Gravity
• Weak Gravity Conjecture with Large Extra Dimensions
• Unifying the 6D $\mathcal{N}=(1,1)$ String Landscape
• De Sitter Quantum Breaking, Swampland Conjectures and Thermal Strings
• Swampland geometry and the gauge couplings
• Superluminal Travel Made Possible (in two dimensions)
• Inflation, Gravity Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking, and de Sitter Vacua in Supergravity with a Kähler-Invariant FI Term
• Analytic Periods via Twisted Symmetric Squares
• An Algorithmic Approach to Heterotic String Phenomenology
• Bulk Black Hole Dark Matter
• Is asymptotically safe inflation eternal?
• A Note on the dS Swampland Conjecture, Non-BPS branes and K-theory
• Conceptual Challenges on the Road to the Multiverse
• Seeking de-Sitter Vacua in the String Landscape
• A non-local way around the no-global-symmetries conjecture in quantum gravity?
• Rejuvenating the hope of a swampland consistent inflated multiverse with tachyonic inflation in the high energy RS-II Braneworld
• Geometric structure of multi-form-field isotropic inflation and primordial fluctuations
• Non-canonical kinetic structures in the swampland
• Geometric Flow of Bubbles
• On the Geometry of Moduli Space of Polarized Calabi-Yau manifolds
• Phases of Inflation
• Non-Abelian Magnetized Blackholes and Unstable Attractors
• Flavor Symmetries and Automatic Enhancement in the 6d Supergravity Swampland
• S-dual Inflation and the String Swampland
• Asymptotic safety, quantum gravity, and the swampland: a conceptual assessment
• The Swampland at Large Number of Space-Time Dimensions
• Do we live in an eigenstate of the "fundamental constants" operators?
• String Landscape and Fermion Masses
• Notes on the Quantum Corrections of Swampland and Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture
• Dimensional reduction of higher derivative heterotic supergravity
• QCD, Flavor, and the de Sitter Swampland
• 4D effective action from non-Abelian DBI action with magnetic flux background
• Lectures in Quantum Gravity
• Geometric flow equations for the number of space-time dimensions
• Catalytic Creation of Bubble Universe Induced by Quintessence in Five Dimensions
• On the squashed seven-sphere operator spectrum
• Logarithmic corrected $f(R)$ gravitational model and swampland conjectures
• Can an Anti-de Sitter Vacuum in the Dark Energy Sector Explain JWST High-Redshift Galaxy and Reionization Observations?
• Over-extremal brane shells from string theory?
• Trans-Planckian Philosophy of Cosmology
• Investigating the Origin of CMB Large-Scale Features Using LiteBIRD and CMB-S4
• The de Sitter swampland conjectures in the context of Chaplygin-inspired inflation
• Making a Quantum Universe: Symmetry and Gravity
• A comment on no-force conditions for black holes and branes
• Constraining the quintessential $\alpha$-attractor inflation through dynamical horizon exit method
• A Weak Gravity Theorem
• The IR Obstruction to UV Completion for Dante's Inferno Model with Higher-Dimensional Gauge Theory Origin
• The anomalous shift of the weak boson mass and the quintessence electroweak axion
• Populating the swampland: the case of U(1)^496 and E_8 x U(1)^248
• Higher-Derivative Corrections to Entropy and the Weak Gravity Conjecture in Anti-de Sitter Space
• AdS Swampland Conjectures and Light Fermions
• Enhancement of axion decay constants in type IIA theory?
• Seeding the vacuum with entropy: the Chaplygin-like vacuum hypothesis
• All-Order Quartic Couplings in Highly Symmetric D-brane-Anti-D-brane Systems
• Escape from the swamp with spectator
• On the Gauge Group Topology of 8d CHL Vacua
• Types of gauge groups in six-dimensional F-theory on double covers of rational elliptic 3-folds
• Lectures on Naturalness, String Landscape and Multiverse
• Topological Data Analysis for the String Landscape
• Universal Relations with the Non-Extensive Entropy Perspective
• On Convexity of Charged Operators in CFTs and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Higher spin swampland conjecture for massive AdS${}_3$ gravity
• CMB bispectrum constraints on DHOST inflation
• Asymptotic safety and quantum gravity amplitudes
• Determining the dual
• The moduli space of hyper-K{ä}hler four-fold compactifications
• Non-Negativity of BMN Two-Point Functions With Three String Modes
• Testing bound dark energy with cosmological parameter and fundamental constant evolution
• Massive gravitons on the Landscape and the AdS Distance Conjecture
• B-brane transport in anomalous (2,2) models and localization
• Special Holonomy and Two-Dimensional Supersymmetric Sigma-Models
• Abelian Varieties, RCFTs, Attractors, and Hitchin Functional in Two Dimensions
• The Weak Gravity Conjecture and BPS Particles
• Extremal 1/2 Calabi-Yau 3-folds and six-dimensional F-theory applications
• Non-supersymmetric AdS${}_6$ and the swampland
• Precision Cosmology and the Landscape
• On the incompleteness of $G_2$-moduli spaces along degenerating families of $G_2$-manifolds
• Constraints on Dark Energy from Inflation and the Swampland Conjectures
• Implications of single field inflation in general cosmological scenarios on the nature of dark energy given the swampland conjectures
• Swampland conjectures for type IIB orientifolds with closed-string U(1)s
• Compactifications of String/M-Theory and the Swampland: A Study of the AdS${}_{\text{4}}$ Mass Spectrum of Eleven-Dimensional Supergravity on the Squashed Seven-Sphere
• Infrared behavior in tame hyperbolizable two-field models
• On the Occurrence of Finite-time Singularities in Swampland-related Quintessence Dark Energy Models
• Large-scale structure with superhorizon isocurvature dark energy
• D-particle Field Category
• CP violation and gravity as the weakest force
• Reissner-Nordström black holes in de Sitter space-time: bounds with quasinormal frequencies
• On the origin of the LIGO "mystery" noise and the high energy particle physics desert
• Covariant formulation of BPS black holes and the scalar weak gravity conjecture
• Scale-dependence in DHOST inflation
• Dynamical Tadpoles and Weak Gravity Constraints
• Swampland Conjectures and Cosmological Expansion
• Towards an explicit model of large field inflation
• String theory landscape and cosmological constant
• Elliptic Calabi-Yau fivefolds and 2d (0,2) F-theory landscape
• Light Scalars and the Cosmos: Nambu-Goldstone and Otherwise
• Comments on Brane Recombination, Finite Flux Vacua, and the Swampland
• Learning Size and Shape of Calabi-Yau Spaces
• Heterotic Flux Geometry from Chiral Gauge Dynamics
• The universality question for noncommutative quantum field theory
• Singularities of 1/2 Calabi-Yau 4-folds and classification scheme for gauge groups in four-dimensional F-theory
• Toroidal $\&$ orbifold compactifications at large D and D-duality
• Holography, Supergravity, and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• $\frac{1}{2}$Calabi-Yau 4-folds and four-dimensional F-theory on Calabi-Yau 4-folds with U(1) factors