(05.11.) Bubbles and the Swampland
Irene Valenzuela (Haravard U.)
05.11.2020 at 16:15
A number of Swampland conjectures suggest that non-supersymmetric vacua must be unstable. These constraints are stronger for the case of de Sitter space, only allowing for short-lived vacua. In this talk, I will revisit these constraints and construct effective theories of scalars rolling on potentials which are dual to a chain of short-lived dS spaces decaying from one to the next through a cascade of non-perturbative nucleation of bubbles. We find constraints on the effective potential resulting from applying various swampland criteria to the short-lived dS vacua. In particular, we find that eternal inflation is marginally ruled out. I will also discuss the rationale behind the conjecture that any non-supersymmetric vacuum should decay and argue for the existence of bubble of nothing instabilities whenever supersymmetry is broken in string compactifications. A bubble of nothing is a spacetime instability where a compact dimension collapses. After nucleation, it expands at the speed of light, leaving "nothing" behind. I will explain how the topological and dynamical obstructions preventing these bubbles can be understood using bordism and local energy conditions. Our techniques can be used to construct a plethora of new bubbles of nothing.
Arnold Sommerfeld Center
Theresienstrasse 37
Room 348
via ZOOM