A Distance Conjecture for Branes

Muldrow Etheredge (UMass Amherst)

Jul 16. 2024, 11:00 — 11:30

The Sharpened Distance Conjecture is not, on its own, preserved under dimensional reduction. We propose its generalization, the Brane Distance Conjecture, as a necessary condition for it to be preserved under reduction. This new conjecture holds that, in any asymptotic distance Delta in the moduli space of string vacua of a D-dimensional theory, among the set of particle towers or non-particle branes with at most P<D-1 spacetime dimensions, at least one of these becomes exponentially low tension by T~exp(-alpha Delta), where alpha is at least 1/sqrt(D-P-1). I will also discuss taxonomy rules for branes that control dot products between scalar charge-to-tensions ratios (-nabla log T) of branes, as well as relationships between these vectors and the moduli-dependent species scale. Based on work with Ben Heidenreich and Tom Rudelius.

Further Information
Venue:
ESI Boltzmann Lecture Hall
Recordings:
Recording
Associated Event:
The Landscape vs. the Swampland (Thematic Programme)
Organizer(s):
Gary Shiu (U of Wisconsin-Madison)
Washington Taylor (MIT, Cambridge)
Irene Valenzuela (CERN, Geneva)
Timm Wrase (Lehigh U, Bethlehem)