Abstract
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.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Supernova Cosmology Project collaboration, Measurements of Ω and Λ from 42 high redshift supernovae, Astrophys. J. 517 (1999) 565 [astro-ph/9812133] [INSPIRE].
Planck collaboration, Planck 2018 results. VI. Cosmological parameters, Astron. Astrophys. 641 (2020) A6 [arXiv:1807.06209] [INSPIRE].
SDSS collaboration, Baryon acoustic oscillations in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey data release 7 galaxy sample, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 401 (2010) 2148 [arXiv:0907.1660] [INSPIRE].
A.H. Guth, The inflationary universe: a possible solution to the horizon and flatness problems, Phys. Rev. D 23 (1981) 347 [Adv. Ser. Astrophys. Cosmol. 3 (1987) 139] [INSPIRE].
A.A. Starobinsky, A new type of isotropic cosmological models without singularity, Phys. Lett. B 91 (1980) 99 [Adv. Ser. Astrophys. Cosmol. 3 (1987) 130] [INSPIRE].
A.D. Linde, A new inflationary universe scenario: a possible solution of the horizon, flatness, homogeneity, isotropy and primordial monopole problems, Phys. Lett. B 108 (1982) 389 [Adv. Ser. Astrophys. Cosmol. 3 (1987) 149] [INSPIRE].
A. Albrecht and P.J. Steinhardt, Cosmology for grand unified theories with radiatively induced symmetry breaking, Phys. Rev. Lett. 48 (1982) 1220 [Adv. Ser. Astrophys. Cosmol. 3 (1987) 158] [INSPIRE].
S. Weinberg, The cosmological constant problem, Rev. Mod. Phys. 61 (1989) 1 [INSPIRE].
G. Obied, H. Ooguri, L. Spodyneiko and C. Vafa, De Sitter space and the swampland, arXiv:1806.08362 [INSPIRE].
D. Andriot, New constraints on classical de Sitter: flirting with the swampland, Fortsch. Phys. 67 (2019) 1800103 [arXiv:1807.09698] [INSPIRE].
D. Andriot, Open problems on classical de Sitter solutions, Fortsch. Phys. 67 (2019) 1900026 [arXiv:1902.10093] [INSPIRE].
M. Dine and N. Seiberg, Is the superstring weakly coupled?, Phys. Lett. B 162 (1985) 299 [INSPIRE].
S. Kachru, R. Kallosh, A.D. Linde and S.P. Trivedi, De Sitter vacua in string theory, Phys. Rev. D 68 (2003) 046005 [hep-th/0301240] [INSPIRE].
D. Junghans, Weakly coupled de Sitter vacua with fluxes and the swampland, JHEP 03 (2019) 150 [arXiv:1811.06990] [INSPIRE].
N. Cribiori and D. Junghans, No classical (anti-)de Sitter solutions with O8-planes, Phys. Lett. B 793 (2019) 54 [arXiv:1902.08209] [INSPIRE].
A. Banlaki, A. Chowdhury, C. Roupec and T. Wrase, Scaling limits of dS vacua and the swampland, JHEP 03 (2019) 065 [arXiv:1811.07880] [INSPIRE].
S. Sethi, Supersymmetry breaking by fluxes, JHEP 10 (2018) 022 [arXiv:1709.03554] [INSPIRE].
T.W. Grimm, C. Li and I. Valenzuela, Asymptotic flux compactifications and the swampland, JHEP 06 (2020) 009 [Erratum ibid. 01 (2021) 007] [arXiv:1910.09549] [INSPIRE].
S.K. Garg and C. Krishnan, Bounds on slow roll and the de Sitter swampland, JHEP 11 (2019) 075 [arXiv:1807.05193] [INSPIRE].
S.K. Garg, C. Krishnan and M. Zaid Zaz, Bounds on slow roll at the boundary of the landscape, JHEP 03 (2019) 029 [arXiv:1810.09406] [INSPIRE].
J.J. Heckman, C. Lawrie, L. Lin and G. Zoccarato, F-theory and dark energy, Fortsch. Phys. 67 (2019) 1900057 [arXiv:1811.01959] [INSPIRE].
J.J. Heckman, C. Lawrie, L. Lin, J. Sakstein and G. Zoccarato, Pixelated dark energy, Fortsch. Phys. 67 (2019) 1900071 [arXiv:1901.10489] [INSPIRE].
H. Geng, A potential mechanism for inflation from swampland conjectures, Phys. Lett. B 805 (2020) 135430 [arXiv:1910.14047] [INSPIRE].
J. March-Russell and R. Petrossian-Byrne, QCD, flavor, and the de Sitter swampland, arXiv:2006.01144 [INSPIRE].
M. Cicoli, S. De Alwis, A. Maharana, F. Muia and F. Quevedo, De Sitter vs. quintessence in string theory, Fortsch. Phys. 67 (2019) 1800079 [arXiv:1808.08967] [INSPIRE].
M. Cicoli, F. Quevedo and R. Valandro, De Sitter from T-branes, JHEP 03 (2016) 141 [arXiv:1512.04558] [INSPIRE].
M. Cicoli, D. Klevers, S. Krippendorf, C. Mayrhofer, F. Quevedo and R. Valandro, Explicit de Sitter flux vacua for global string models with chiral matter, JHEP 05 (2014) 001 [arXiv:1312.0014] [INSPIRE].
M. Cicoli, A. Maharana, F. Quevedo and C.P. Burgess, De Sitter string vacua from dilaton-dependent non-perturbative effects, JHEP 06 (2012) 011 [arXiv:1203.1750] [INSPIRE].
D. Marolf, I.A. Morrison and M. Srednicki, Perturbative S-matrix for massive scalar fields in global de Sitter space, Class. Quant. Grav. 30 (2013) 155023 [arXiv:1209.6039] [INSPIRE].
D. Andriot, P. Marconnet and T. Wrase, New de Sitter solutions of 10d type IIB supergravity, JHEP 08 (2020) 076 [arXiv:2005.12930] [INSPIRE].
D. Andriot, P. Marconnet and T. Wrase, Intricacies of classical de Sitter string backgrounds, Phys. Lett. B 812 (2021) 136015 [arXiv:2006.01848] [INSPIRE].
T. Banks and M. Dine, Dark energy in perturbative string cosmology, JHEP 10 (2001) 012 [hep-th/0106276] [INSPIRE].
S.R. Coleman and F. De Luccia, Gravitational effects on and of vacuum decay, Phys. Rev. D 21 (1980) 3305 [INSPIRE].
S.R. Coleman, The fate of the false vacuum. 1. Semiclassical theory, Phys. Rev. D 15 (1977) 2929 [Erratum ibid. 16 (1977) 1248] [INSPIRE].
H. Ooguri, E. Palti, G. Shiu and C. Vafa, Distance and de Sitter conjectures on the swampland, Phys. Lett. B 788 (2019) 180 [arXiv:1810.05506] [INSPIRE].
S. Kachru, M. Kim, L. McAllister and M. Zimet, De Sitter vacua from ten dimensions, arXiv:1908.04788 [INSPIRE].
M. Dine, G. Festuccia and A. Morisse, The fate of nearly supersymmetric vacua, JHEP 09 (2009) 013 [arXiv:0901.1169] [INSPIRE].
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
ArXiv ePrint: 2008.12399
Rights and permissions
Open Access . This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits any use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
About this article
Cite this article
Dine, M., Law-Smith, J.A.P., Sun, S. et al. Obstacles to constructing de Sitter space in string theory. J. High Energ. Phys. 2021, 50 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2021)050
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2021)050