Obstacles to constructing de Sitter space in string theory

Michael Dine (Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics and Department of Physics, University of California, 1156 High St, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA) ; Jamie Law-Smith (Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California at Santa Cruz, 1156 High St, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA) ; Shijun Sun (Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics and Department of Physics, University of California, 1156 High St, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA) ; Duncan Wood (Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics and Department of Physics, University of California, 1156 High St, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA) ; Yan Yu (Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics and Department of Physics, University of California, 1156 High St, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA)

There have been many attempts to construct de Sitter space-times in string theory. While arguably there have been some successes, this has proven challenging, leading to the de Sitter swampland conjecture: quantum theories of gravity do not admit stable or metastable de Sitter space. Here we explain that, within controlled approximations, one lacks the tools to construct de Sitter space in string theory. Such approximations would require the existence of a set of (arbitrarily) small parameters, subject to severe constraints. But beyond this one also needs an understanding of big-bang and big-crunch singularities that is not currently accessible to standard approximations in string theory. The existence or non-existence of metastable de Sitter space in string theory remains a matter of conjecture.

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      "value": "There have been many attempts to construct de Sitter space-times in string theory. While arguably there have been some successes, this has proven challenging, leading to the de Sitter swampland conjecture: quantum theories of gravity do not admit stable or metastable de Sitter space. Here we explain that, within controlled approximations, one lacks the tools to construct de Sitter space in string theory. Such approximations would require the existence of a set of (arbitrarily) small parameters, subject to severe constraints. But beyond this one also needs an understanding of big-bang and big-crunch singularities that is not currently accessible to standard approximations in string theory. The existence or non-existence of metastable de Sitter space in string theory remains a matter of conjecture."
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Published on:
05 February 2021
Publisher:
Springer
Published in:
Journal of High Energy Physics , Volume 2021 (2021)
Issue 2
Pages 1-19
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2021)050
arXiv:
2008.12399
Copyrights:
The Author(s)
Licence:
CC-BY-4.0

Fulltext files: